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Polymer Reliability and Threat Mitigation

Introduction
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Polymeric materials are ubiquitous in applications for threat mitigation and often play a critical structural role, e.g., ballistic fibers in “bulletproof” vests and adhesives and packaging materials in passports.
Physical reliability under mechanical fatigue and a wide variety of environmental conditions is often a critical design requirement.

Objective
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To develop metrologies and predictive models to test and predict the long-term reliability of polymers used in ballistic resistant armor and machine readable travel documents.

Relative Risk of Fatalities when NOT Wearing Armor
Deceased
Alive
Total
No Armor
21
7
28
Armor
4
18
22
Total
25
25
50
From Selection and Application Guide to Personal Body Armor, NIJ Guide 100–01
 

NIST Role
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  • Ballistic-resistant body armor has been credited with saving more than 2500 lives, but new materials are constantly being developed, and there currently exists no method for evaluating armor over time to ensure the continued effectiveness of the protection.
  • Link chemical structure and fiber mechanics to ballistic performance
  • Identify chemical mechanisms underlying reduction of ballistic performance (UV and hydrolysis)
  • Machine Readable Travel Documents (e.g., passports) are critical to homeland security.
  • NIST helped to develop the currently “unbeatable” U.S. Passport and therefore has the experience to assist in development of the next generation passport.
  • Physical security of the passport is one of the critical design elements, i.e., forgery/tamper resistance.
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    Highlights
     
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  • We have developed a method to characterize isolated fibers without a resin matrix
  • NIST durability tests have been added to the critical path for selection of the new United States Passport
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    Customers
     
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    OLES   

     
     
     

    NIST Contributors:
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    Chad R. Snyder*
    Gale A. Holmes*
    Walter McDonough*Bruno M. Fanconi
    Kathleen Flynn
    Forrest Landis
    Da-Wei Liu
    Steven Roth
    David VanderHart
    William Wallace
     

    Collaborators:
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    Kirk Rice, OLES*
    National Institute of Justice
    U.S. Department of State
     
    		 
    		 
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    NIST logo
    Characterization and Measurement Group
    Polymers Division
    Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory
     
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