Auxetic Fabric Technology Development for Military Protective Clothing Navy STTR FY2012.A Sol No.: Navy STTR FY2012.A Topic No.: N12A-T012 Topic Title: Auxetic Fabric Technology Development for Military Protective Clothing Proposal No.: N12A-012-0160 Firm: Touchstone Research Laboratory, Ltd. The Millennium Centre 1142 Middle Creek Road Triadelphia, West Virginia 26059-1139 Contact: Jesse Blacker Phone: (304) 547-5800 Web Site: http://www.trl.com Abstract: The United States Navy has identified the need to investigate the use of auxetic fabric for military personnel protective clothing including jackets, shirts, pants, helmets, boots, gloves, and even body armor. Auxetic fabric technology has a unique feature in that it exhibits a negative Poisson's ratio effect when subjected to an axial load. Auxetic fabric consists of an elastomeric core yarn, which is helically wrapped with a high stiffness fiber. In Phase I, Touchstone and its partners, (The Ohio State University and Advanced Fabric Technologies) will produce variations of the auxetic fabric, XtegraT, characterize the fabrics with both static and dynamic tensile loadings and 3D Digital Image Correlation, and begin to construct both material and numerical models for auxetics and their products (i.e., protective clothing). Touchstone's team is uniquely positioned to complete the proposed work as AFT has exclusive rights to market and manufacture auxetic fabrics in North America. Touchstone and OSU are providing the research and development and engineering resources required to successfully develop auxetic for military applications. Benefits: Auxetic fabric technology is a potentially game-changing technology and could completely revolutionize products in numerous markets. The benefits that result from the auxetic fabrics' negative Poisson's ratio effect are numerous and include increased shear modulus, energy absorption, fracture toughness and indentation resistance. These properties are very attractive in armor applications, especially for blast resistance and fragmentation protection. The benefits of the negative Poisson's ratio also provide manufacturers of gloves, boots, and uniforms an entirely new class of fabrics to design into their products that can increase performance, comfort, and utility. Applications for auxetic fabrics also exist in shelters, tents, canopies, buildings, and other critical infrastructure requiring blast protection. Military vehicles, ranging from supply trucks to Humvee's to tanks, could also benefit from auxetics' increasing blast protection and overall survivability. All of these applications have dual use as military and commercial products and, as such, there is a very high commercialization upside for auxetic fabrics. Return