Posted May 18, 2017 9:00 am by Comments

By Tactical-Life

When one thinks about effective bulletproofing materials, things like Kevlar, Lexan, steel and titanium spring to mind. You know what doesn’t spring to mind? Goo. Yet an Air Force Academy cadet and a professor have garnered all sorts of attention for creating a thick gooey gel capable of enhancing body armor.

Cadet 1st Class Hayley Weir’s journey began in 2014 when her professor gave her an assignment to stop a bullet by combining carbon fiber, Kevlar and epoxy. She wanted to create an armor that was thinner, lighter and more flexible than the body armor commonly used today. To get started, she researched material for a prototype.

According to the Air Force Times, the Academy put her in touch with a chemistry advisor who suggested using a shear thickening fluid instead of the epoxy that hardens when dried. The fluid, which is called a “non-Newtonian fluid,” changes viscosity depending on if stress or force is applied to it. Essentially, the material is gooey until struck by something like a bullet. At that point, the material hardens and stops it.

Weir did six …Read the Rest

Source:: Tactical Life

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