Bulletproof gel?

[oliversion]

Hullo, new to the forums. I have plenty of ideas of my own which I will later ask you guys to pick at and appraise, but today I come to ask about the validity of a rumor I heard. Google failed me, so please help:

 

I heard, probably on the radio, about new military armoring methods. Amongst other things, such as synthetic spider silk body armour, there was mention of "bulletproof gel". Gel that, when hit fast, solidified and became impenetrable. I vaguely remember something similar in chem class, we had this goop, you hit with a hammer, and its rock hard.

So 2 questions: Anyone know about this bulletproof gel (military/nasa were mentioned)

And: Is it different from that stuff in chem class, i.e. is it readily accessible? I would love to do some "experiments" involving a japanese longbow, and some arrows

 

Thanks guys, (and gals!)

Oly

[oliversion]

Aerogel. Thats what its called. It was nasa, I found a couple links:

 

Gel article

 

Gel for sale on ebay, 35$ for a wittle chunk

 

Weirdness... would prolly cost thousands, but you "could" make a shield, (medieval style) out of the stuff, and it would protect you from bullets.. theoretically... tho really it needs to be quite thick to stop things... alas

Spidersilk mail it is then.

[YT2095]

that "Goop" as you called it, is almost an appropriate term LOL.

it`s actualy a non Newtoniun fluid, typicaly made from corn starch (flour) and water, when you move slowly in it, it behaves like a liquid, but instantly solidifies upon impact.

I have no idea how it would behave when impacted with a ballistic projectile though? I`ve no reason to beleive it would do the same as with an ordinary blunt impact, although I would imagine the "goop" that flies off would also act as further fragmentation, and certainly unviable to be made into a suit, due to the shear weight of the water and materials used.

 

be certain, when I get a quiet 5 mins I`ll actualy try this out and let you know, I`ve put it on my "To Do" list

[admiral_ju00]

At what speed does a bullet travel anyway? Can we say for example that a shot fired from a Desert Eagle travel at mach 1? Is it slower or faster?

 

Assuming even for a second that it does fly at mach 1 speeds, does this Newtonium fluid solidify much faster than this? I assume that it must.

 

Or if the above example was too crude, tell me this YT, the gel must solidify proportionately faster then the fastest object hitting it(exluding photons). Am I right in at least this assumption?

 

And if you can elaborate any further, how exactly does it solidify? You mean Crystallize?

[YT2095]

Whoa, so many questions in one post! )

 

1`stly, the speed is all dependant on the type of round fired, theres super and subsonic rounds, so really it`s how long is a peice of string?

 

it doesn`t crystalise, it`s basicly that the water moves out of the way between the solid particles where there is force applied, thus pressenting this force with a near solid opposition. when a slow moving object is in this mix, it can move freely, as the water is allowed to "circulate" (for wants of a beter word) around the solid particles.

a similar effect can be seen on the beach next to the tide line, if you stand still you`ll gradualy sink. if you run over it you`ll hardly leave a footprint

now imagine this where the scale of the sand isn`t in mm but in microns, the effect is very impressive!

 

it solidifies near instantly, and it`s not a gel, it`s a "GOOP"

[oliversion]

Cool, I was scared to buy the aerogel due to cost, so corn starch will make a more fun thing to fiddle with

 

Bullets generally move between 500fps, and 2000fps. They go higher of course, 3000fps isn't uncommon, and military guns can fire insanely fast.

I would imagine encapsulating the stuff in some sort of pouch would be the best way to contain it. I'm going to use one of my friends home-made potato cannons on it, see what happens. They move pretty slow, 250fps or so, but are alot of fun to use.

[jgerlica]

In my most humble opinion, this would be very effective against blunt trauma, but not so effective against ballistic projectiles. Maybe, maybe something with a large cross section and low velocity, but even then I wouldn't try it. And I certainly wouldn't attempt it with an arrow as in the original post, as this, and kevlar for that matter works by transferring force over a broad area. An arrow would be similar to my experiments with a bayonet and my flak jacket when i was overseas. Needless to say I ended up reimbursing uncle sam.

[YT2095]

LOL. the things we`ll do just to find something out

there are jackets that can be worn that are stab proof though, the police here wear them all the time, I suspect it has a metal plate in the material somewhere to deflect?

 

if you`re going to use the spud gun, remember that all that force has to go somewhere! and even if it didn`t penetrate your gel, it could still knock you on your a$$

[oliversion]

Heheh you guys might be a little more daring than me, I wasn't considering wearing a corn-starch baggie-vest and having my friend shoot me with a potato gun. Although that sounds fun... but I was actually thinking of putting one over a water melon or similar, and seeing how it damages the fruit. Interesting thought though, that a bayonet wouldn't be deflected due to the constant force.

 

The potato guns are more fun the heavier the projectile is. Nerf balls basically pop, while a zuchinni or similar gives alot of recoil. Wonder what kind of projectile to test on the gel?

[Skye]

Here's an article on the stuff the US army is looking into,

 

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/armyweapons/a/liquidarmor.htm

 

Here's a pdf of a paper that goes into detail,

 

http://www.asc2002.com/manuscripts/A/AO-01.PDF

[YT2095]

The potato guns are more fun the heavier the projectile is. Nerf balls basically pop, while a zuchinni or similar gives alot of recoil. Wonder what kind of projectile to test on the gel?

strike a happy compromise and use a tennis ball, although they CAN cause quite some damage over a short range, they lose velocity fairly quickly, and so you`de not have to worry too much about over shoot