Search for a command to run...
Dedicated metal armor protection for land transport vehicles is an effective solution against blast threats. However, the added weight of these solutions can reduce the vehicle's maneuverability and, indirectly, its maximum payload capacity. To overcome this weight problem, the use of composite materials as additional armor for the vehicle can be an innovative and lightweight solution. In previous studies, different configurations have been subjected to the blast effect in order to analyze and understand their dynamic behavior. The first fiber reinforcements used for composite materials, based on stacked layers of E-glass fabric, were able to withstand dynamic blast loads. However, these reinforcements tend to have the same performance as the all-steel solution for the same areal weight. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the use of 3D woven fiber reinforcements based on E-glass yarn in composite materials for better dynamic performance under blast loading. The fabricated targets were tested against the same blast threat in a free field configuration. The distance between the charge and the targets was kept constant (except for the full thickness 3D woven composite). During the blast, the dynamic deformation in the thickness direction was recorded and different targets were compared. According to the resulting dynamic deformation under the impact of the blast, a better performance of the full thickness 3D woven composite material matched with the protective steel plate was revealed.