Curaua Non-woven Fabric Composite for Ceramic Multilayered Armors: A Lightweight, Natural, and Low Cost Alternative for Kevlar^TM

Advanced ceramics have been extensively applied for ballistic protection, when high levels of protection and low weight are demanded. However, their spalling characteristics require the suitable backing materials to collect the fragments generated on the impact. Synthetic fiber laminates, as Kevlar^TM and Dyneema^TM, are currently the most used solutions despite of their high cost and non-sustainable conditions. Therefore, several materials are being studied to replace the synthetic fiber laminates as second layer, including natural fiber composites, which are light, low cost and sustainable materials. Among these, Amazon curaua fiber composites are promising, due to its known high strength and high modulus. In the present work, novel curaua non-woven fabrics polymer composites have been investigated as part of the ceramic armor system. Ballistic tests were performed following NIJ 0101.06 armor standard. The results showed that these composites are promising alternatives to the synthetic fiber laminates as ceramic backing materials.