Development of a new method to determine dynamic tensile strength of ballistic yarns

Since the design of new soft protections is getting intensive, the study of the dynamic behavior of ballistic yarns becomes more and more important. This paper deals with the development of a new experimental method in order to obtain some dynamic parameters by performing dynamic tensile tests. The concept is quite simple: two projectiles, linked together by the ballistic yarn we want to study, are accelerated together with the help of a gas gun. The first one flies freely while the second one is suddenly stopped. The yarn is then loaded in tensile. Several measurements are performed during each test with the help of a high speed camera. First results on a polyethylene yarn are presented here and several improvements are proposed in order to improve the accuracy of the results