Crimp-Imbalanced Protective (CRIMP) Fabrics: An Analytical Investigation into the Relationship Between Crimp Contents, Energy Absorption, and Fabric Ballistic Performance

This report documents research that was conducted to analytically investigate the relationships between dynamic energy absorption of plain-woven fabrics commonly used in protective systems and the architectural parameters used to describe their construction including, for example, crimp contents, yarn density ratios, and yarn-yarn friction. The research results showed that for plain-woven fabrics subject to ballistic impacts, highly crimp-imbalanced, plain-woven fabrics performed in a manner far superior to that of crimp-balanced, plain-woven fabrics. These analytical solutions resulted in the ability to parametrically study the effect of crimp imbalance on the dynamic energy absorbability of plain-woven fabrics.