Tow pullout behavior of polymer-coated Kevlar fabric

Tow pullout response of polymer-coated woven Kevlar fabric is investigated experimentally. Various material microstructures are created by applying heat and pressure to polymer-coated fabric to change polymer surface morphology. The pullout behavior is studied by conducting tow pullout tests using a pullout fixture. Single tow is pulled from the fabric loaded with tension in the direction transverse to that of pull. The tests are performed at various loading rates to investigate rate sensitivity of pullout load and energy. Load versus displacement data is obtained, from which the peak loads and pullout energies are computed. The results are compared with baseline neat fabric as well as baseline fabric with polymer coating. The results of the investigation show that for the Kevlar fabric under consideration, the neat fabric shows no loading rate dependence. On the other hand, the polymer-coated fabric shows loading rate dependence. Moreover, the heat-compressing of the fabric seems to have significant influence on tow pullout behavior. The results of pullout tests show that by simply compressing the fabric in the presence of heat may influence the interactions at tow cross-over regions to results in higher pullout energy.