High strength, light weight and flexibility have made fabrics the preferred material for personal body armor and other impact protection applications such as passenger airbags, turbine blade containment systems, military and motorcycle helmets, and space debris shields. Recently, a shear thickening fluid has been used to treat a Kevlar fabric for an additional enhancement to the ballistic resistance of the neat fabric. Motivated by this technique of dissipation augmentation to high strength fabrics, this research aims at investigating the incorporation of other energy-dissipative materials into high strength fabrics. Specifically, two magnetic field-responsive materials (a magnetorheological fluid and Terfenol-D) have been used as a dissipation augmentation of Kevlar fabrics. No previous work has reported either experimental or computational research on the impact dynamics of Kevlar fabric treated with magnetorheological fluids or magnetostrictive solids. This research has investigated both computational modeling and experimental evaluation of the impact dynamics of textile composite armor, treated with magnetic field-responsive materials. Fragment simulating projectile impact tests have been conducted for the fabricated composite targets under an applied magnetic field. A computational model based on a hybrid particle-element method has been developed, to simulate the impact dynamics of composite fabric targets embodying magnetorheological fluids. This model is a mesoscale multiphysics model which can simulate impact dynamics including complex magneto-thermo-mechanical coupling effects as well as interactions among a projectile, fabric yarns, and magnetorheological fluid particles. Computer simulations have been performed to validate the hybrid particle-element method against experimental results. The computational method developed in this research has shown good agreement with the experimental data, in terms of the ballistic limit and residual velocity of a striking projectile. As fabric impact protection systems become more complex, and more expensive materials are introduced, computation may play a more important role in design. Therefore, the hybrid particle-element model in this dissertation may contribute to the improvement of the computational capability for virtual prototyping of fabric-interstitial fluid composites. / text

"At the present time the textile industry in Texas is seeking to normalize itself after running at a peak production for the last ten years. It is one of the most competitive of our industries. The mills in Texas have always had to compete with the large mills located in the Eastern states, which have many advantages over the Texas mills. ... It has been only recently since the manufacture of synthetic fibers began in Texas, and it has not yet been fully completed. At the present time only the ingredients for synthetic fibers are produced in Texas. ... Cotton and wool manufacturing may develop gradually, but in the field of synthetics appears the greatest opportunity for a future textile industry in Texas."

Thesis. 1977. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Chemistry. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Includes bibliographical references. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Utah State University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

The need for innovative lightweight materials are rapidly increased in the recent years, owing to their cost-effective, high-strength, environmentally-sound use of materials and process technologies, in addition to that they reduce the weight of a product. The characteristics of 3D-spacer fabrics as one of the most important lightweight materials in future are multifaceted not only owing to its extremely light materials, but also because of exceptionally high stiffness to weight ratio compared to other constructions. It is also one possible method for improving the properties of fabric-reinforced composites. It can enhance the through-the-thickness properties, such as shear strength, dimensional stability, damage, tolerance, and fracture toughness that are critical for many structural applications. Spacer fabric has been employed in high-technology applications because of its critical mechanical properties related to high tensile strength, tear strength and stiffness. Furthermore, its multidirectional structures allow with more reinforcement along the thickness direction leading to an increase in stiffness and strength properties. The fundamental aim of this thesis exists in the development of a new kind of woven spacer fabrics for the light weight composites materials, in an effort to weave spacer fabrics that can not be realized with the old technology which are mentioned above. Therefore, the work in brief focuses on two main goals: 1. Development of a new kind of spacer fabrics for composites in the lightweight constructions. 2. Development of special devices of a narrow weaving machine for standing the process of the new kind of spacer fabrics production. The slippage strength test had to be carried out for the floated warp yarns through the ground fabrics by using different elements of woven fabric structures variables represented in different fabric constructions, different weft densities and different repeats of constructions by using different materials. The importance of this test related to the backward-movement of the floated warp yarns which is the crucial stage in the weaving process of spacer fabrics during the backward-movement. The results of this test determine the required forces for the backward-movement, on the other side it is the best method to observe the behavior of structure elements during the backward movement. The results of the slippage strength had been statistically analyzed, and the weaving process for the spacer fabrics had been achieved. It was concluded that the best properties for the woven spacer fabrics and the optimum case for the weaving process on the test weaving machine had been achieved when the following items are realized: Development of the narrow weaving machine is closed in assisting operations, let-off and take-up and enhancement for take-up processes. Extra let-off and take-up devices must be constructed at the weaving machine. Extra let-off device has to be used for controlling the floated warp yarns of ground fabrics. On the other side, extra take-up and the developed take-up devices have to be used for controlling the woven spacer fabrics. The experimental results give fundamental knowledges for the next steps in research and development of woven spacer fabrics made of high-performance yarns on the wide weaving machine. / Die Ziele der Arbeit bestanden in der Entwicklung der Geometrie der Spacer Fabrics und der notwendigen Falteneinrichtung an der Bandwebmaschine. Spacer Fabrics werden ausschließlich aus zwei Deckflächen, die durch eingewebte Stege verbunden sind, gefertigt. Zur Entwicklung der Spacer Fabrics muss eine Doppelnadel-Bandwebmaschine mit zwei Webfächern eingesetzt werden. Für die Faltenwebeinrichtung werden der entwickelte Extra-Kettablass und der Extra-Abzug benötigt. Der Antrieb und die Steuerung des Extra-Abzuges erfolgen durch einen Synchronantrieb und der Antrieb und die Steuerung des Extra-Ablasses durch Pneumatik.Eine frei programmierbare Steuerung der Faltenwebeinrichtung ermöglicht eine sichere und optimierte Synchronisation zwischen Webprozess und Faltenbildung. Im Ergebnis einer systematischen Strukturentwicklung von Spacer Fabrics und der Simulation ihrer günstigen Herstellung mittles eines speziell entwickelten Slippage Strength Tests werden die optimalen Strukturen ermittelt. Die experimentellen Untersuchungen bringen grundlegende Erkenntnisse für die folgenden Forschungsschritte zur Entwicklung von gewebten Spacer Fabrics mit Hochleistungsgarnen auf Doppelgreiferwebmaschinen.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-171). / vi, 171 leaves, bound ill. (some col.) 29 cm

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M.S.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on July 29, 2009) Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-110). Also issued in print.