Preparation and properties of shear thickening fluid (STF) capsule filled graded buffer composites
Junli Huo, Fei Sun, Ting‐Ting Li, Bing‐Chiuan Shiu, Ching‐Wen Lou, Jia‐Horng Lin
Abstract
In this study, we prepared a graded buffer composite by using shear thickening fluid (STF) capsules, polyurethane (PU) foam, and low-melting point PET fabric or spacer fabric with improved energy absorption performance. Various graded buffer composites are fabricated including STF capsule/PU foam covered with PET fabric (SC/PU/PET-CM) and STF capsule/PU foam covered with warp-knitted spacer fabric (SC/PU/WKSF-CM). The thermal stability and the mechanical properties of the graded buffer composite were tested. After adding STF capsules, PU foam still has good thermal stability whose weight- loss temperature reaches 200 ℃; and the compression energy and buffer performance both increases. The compression energy of S4-STF/PU is 2.26 times than that of S4-PU and 5.65 times than that of pure PU foam. Among SC/PU/PET-CM samples, HP-STF/PU graded foam composite showed the lowest impact force (3833 N). Comparatively, among SC/PU/WKSF-CM samples, the buffer performance of S4-STF/PU shows the best, and the impact value is reduced to 3921 N, which is 848 N lower (17.7%) than that of PU foam. The composites can be used as an alternative material in the field of protection.