body armor tagged posts

A team of Johns Hopkins University researchers created shock-absorbing material that protects like a metal, but is lighter, stronger, reusable. The new foam-like material could be a game-changer for helmets, body armor, and automobile and aerospace parts.

“We are excited about our findings on the extreme energy absorption capability of the new material,” said senior author Sung Hoon Kang, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. “The material offers more protection from a wide range of impacts, but being lighter could reduce fuel consumption and the environmental impact of vehicles while being more comfortable for protective gear wearers.”

Kang, wh...

Researchers at MIT have explored the secrets behind the conch shell’s extraordinary impact resilience. The findings are reported in a new study by MIT graduate student Grace Gu (right), postdoc Mahdi Takaffoli (left), and McAfee Professor of Engineering Markus Buehler. Credit: Melanie Gonick/MIT

Three-tiered structure of these impact-resistant shells could inspire better helmets, body armor. As recent research has demonstrated, one type of shell stands out above all the others in its toughness: the conch. Now, researchers at MIT have explored the secrets behind these shells’ extraordinary impact resilience. And they’ve shown that this superior strength could be reproduced in engineered materials, potentially to provide the best-ever protective headgear and body armor.

Conch shells “have ...

Human Hair fiber

In a new study, UCSD researchers investigate why hair is incredibly strong and resistant to breaking. The findings could lead to the development of new materials for body armor and help cosmetic manufacturers create better hair care products. Hair has a strength: weight ratio comparable to steel. It can be stretched up to 1.5X its original length before breaking. They examined at the nanoscale level how a strand of human hair behaves when it is deformed, or stretched. Hair behaves differently depending on how fast or slow it is stretched. The faster hair is stretched, the stronger it is.

Hair consists of 2 main parts – the cortex: made up of parallel fibrils, and the matrix, with an amorphous structure...

It draws its strength from hexagon-shaped scales and connections between them, University of California, SD engineers, have found. Lactoria cornuta “boxfish is small and yet it survives in the ocean where it is surrounded by bigger, aggressive fish, at a depth of 50 to 100 meters,” said Wen Yang,Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. “After I touched it, I realized why it can survive — it is so strong but at the same time so flexible.”

The hexagon-shaped scales are called scutes. They are connected by sutures, similar to the connections in a baby’s skull, which grow and fuse together as the baby grows. Most fish have overlapping scales = no weak points, should a bite from a predator land exactly in between scales...