"Liquid" body armor

M

mwerner

Joined
Apr 23, 2002
Messages
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A short bit from Slashdot this morning is about a new body-armor technology:

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/01/0336235&from=rss

Apparently, the stuff is bonded to regular Kevlar vest material, but remains in a semi-liquid state. Upon impact, it stiffens into an impact-dispersing solid, then as quickly reverts to it's semi-liquid state after impact.

Wonder if this would be more resistant to pointy penetrations like knives or flechette rounds?
 
It sounds like it would be less resistent, especially if the knife went in relatively slowly.
 
benh said:
It sort of sounds like those force field body armor things from Dune.
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Huh? Did you read Dune? Dune used some sort of immaterial forcefield, not a thing like liquid bonded Kevlar.
 
some sort of immaterial forcefield
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Yes, but we're referring to it working the same way -- stopping rapid projectiles but allowing a s l o w l y inserted knife to penetrate.
 
As someone else also stated in the Slashdot article, this immediately reminded me of sintered armorgel from Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" novel:

Where his body has bony extremities, the suit has sintered armorgel: feels like gritty jello, protects like a stack of telephone books.
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Esav Benyamin said:
Yes, but we're referring to it working the same way -- stopping rapid projectiles but allowing a s l o w l y inserted knife to penetrate.
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How do you know that it works that way?
 
this reminds me of the mjolnir armor from halo. it would be great to see this apllied to cars, maybe even everyday work gear.......
 
Some US athletes used similar fabrics at the last olympics. The suit is fully flexible until struck when it becomes rigid. This was especially useful to some skier who have to sky through a course maked by flags on poles. The closer you can ski to the pole, the shorter your overall run -- a few feet can be a win/loose difference. But, when you ski close to th pole, you risk hitting the flagpole at high speed which is very painful and leaves a nasty bruise which can be painful and even disabling for weeks. These special suits (made by Nike just up the road from me) allowed US skiers the confidence to get closer to the flags cutting important seconds off their times. And yet because the suits are entirely flexible otherwise, they don't interfer with sking at all. I saw one skier interviewed who described the suit as "a miracle." The reporter asked the obvious questions about possible use as armour and the Nike engineer explained that the material was not yet fast enough to stop bullets or shrapnel and that it could still be cut by a sharp object such as a knife. Of course, I'm sure that some folks are working hard to improve it.
 
wannabemarine said:
this reminds me of the mjolnir armor from halo. it would be great to see this apllied to cars, maybe even everyday work gear.......
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I've got to hear this. OK, here goes. What similarities are you seeing?
 
I gotta love this.
1. A new technology mimics some aspects of a product proposed in a sci-fi book.
(quite often, science follows science fiction).

2. Someone points out those similarities.

3. Some fan of the sci-fi book gets their panties in a bunch because the similarities are not exact.......:rolleyes:
 
I'm still waiting for it to come out in something more practicle like spray on.

Going back to the ski suit. There has been a fibre that is considerably more effective than Kevlar. However it is very expensive and unidirectional. If woven wrong you may as well be wearing a heavy bikini.

Fluid is an excellent method of energy dispersment but must be heavy.
 
It sounds like a non-Newtonian liquid. Im no great physics major but I saw a tv show in the UK called "Braniac-Science Abuse" where a guy walked across a pool filled with custard. As he impacted the custard hard with his feet it held his weight but once he stopped the mixture turned to its liquid state & he just sank into it, Im sure this new armour would be a similar principle.
 
It'll be great to see this actually put into use. I imagine that the traditional kevlar/ceramic vests would probably still be worn, but even in its early stages I'm sure that liquid armor could be put to use protecting all of the areas not covered by armor, as there's nothing to lose by putting some under pants and sleeves that aren't protecting the soldiers anyway. More than just protecting against direct gunshots, just imagine how much it could help to protect against shrapnel. Who knows- maybe colored and opaque spray-on armor will replace traditional clothes and become the ultimate answer to self-defense! :D

Jedi Knife said:
Huh? Did you read Dune? Dune used some sort of immaterial forcefield, not a thing like liquid bonded Kevlar.
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Jedi Knife said:
I've got to hear this. OK, here goes. What similarities are you seeing?
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Well, I can think of one form of protection that Jedi Knife doesn't need to worry about using anytime soon ;)
 
Come on, thats all a bunch of nonsense. The "real" liquid armor is, or course, beer. You have a few, feel like you're invincible. Closely related to "beer goggles" and "beer muscles"
 
The "real" liquid armor is, or course, beer. You have a few, feel like you're invincible.
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I concur, a camelback filled with beer or margarita is about the best liquid armor I can think of.
 
Shann said:
Come on, thats all a bunch of nonsense. The "real" liquid armor is, or course, beer. You have a few, feel like you're invincible. Closely related to "beer goggles" and "beer muscles"
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Yes, but tequilla makes you bulletproof.:)
 
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