Ageing of High Strength p-Aramid Fibers Used in Body Armor

To improve the reliability and design of armor, it is imperative to understand the failure modes and the degradation rates of the materials used in armor. Despite the best efforts of manufacturers, some vulnerability of armor materials to ageing due to hydrolytic or oxidative environments is expected and may result in the degradation of material properties such as tensile strength. In this work, p-aramid yarns from two manufacturers were exposed to environmental conditions of various fixed temperature and humidity combinations. The maximum temperature and humidity condition was 70 °C and 76 % RH. Tensile tests were performed on specimens extracted at several different timepoints over the course of at least one year to determine the change in ultimate tensile strength and failure strain as a function of time, temperature, and humidity. These materials were found to be generally resistant to degradation at most conditions, showing changes of less than 10 % only at the highest temperature and humidity conditions.This data set contains failure load and failure strain values for three different aramid yarns, exposed to various conditions. It also includes Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy spectra for two of the aramids.为提升装甲装备的可靠性与设计水平，亟需明确装甲所用材料的失效模式与劣化速率。尽管制造商已尽最大努力，但装甲材料在水解或氧化环境下仍不可避免地存在老化脆弱性，进而可能导致拉伸强度等材料性能发生劣化。 本研究选取两家厂商的对位芳纶（p-aramid）纱线，将其置于多种固定温湿度组合的环境中开展暴露试验，最高温湿度条件为70℃、76%相对湿度（Relative Humidity，RH）。在长达至少一年的试验周期内，于多个不同时间点提取试样进行拉伸测试，以探明极限拉伸强度与断裂应变随时间、温度及湿度的变化规律。 研究结果表明，该类材料在多数试验条件下均表现出优异的抗劣化性能，仅在最高温湿度条件下性能变化幅度小于10%。 本数据集包含三种不同芳纶纱线在各类暴露条件下的失效载荷与断裂应变数据，同时还涵盖其中两种芳纶的傅里叶变换红外（Fourier Transform Infrared，FTIR）光谱谱图。