One for the military/police types....

[winneganfake]

Does Kevlar (as in specifically, a bulletproof vest) burn at hot enough temperatures, or does it just melt?

Comments

[tjk-40.livejournal.com]

You make me afraid...

[traceylee.livejournal.com]

I'll ask jakflak. He's a police officer and that sounds like just the sort of thing he might try.

[luchog.livejournal.com]

All plastics will burn if they're hot enough. Hell, even Nomex will burn if it's hot enough. Kevlar doesn't have any special temperature characteristics, and will burn about as well as any other polyester aramid fiber.

Vest=more than just kevlar

[nomadboi.livejournal.com]

Keep in mind there's other stuff there as well. Velcro? Melts just fine, and will bond to flesh too! The label-probably cotton? Thread? Some may be kevlar, but some of it probably isn't. Lining? Washable carrier, depending on type of vest? Probably not.

May also be an insert trauma plate of metal, ceramic, or more layers of kevlar.

[jgreywolf.livejournal.com]

My understanding was that kevlar would actually start to decompose at around 500c - if you want to call that melting, so be it :) There is conflicting info on the internet about this though - as it really depends on what you mean. Soft body armor - or body armor that is something woven out of kevlar - but with ballistic inserts...which have completely different reactions to heat.

In the soft body armor side, Heavyweight Kevlar styles can withstand 200° F for short intervals but the level of heat resistance can go as high as 400° F). Heat transfer through Kevlar is slower than that of cotton or leather, however the dissipating factor is also slower. This slow dissipation rate is critical if the end-user is handling hot objects (over 200° F) for long periods of time without any breaks between handling parts.

This does not address what would happen to any of the other materials that make up a vest, though - as mentioned previously. BTW - kevlar can also be degraded by exposure to direct sunlight (UV rays), as well as water. I foudn a report that shows some of the soft body armor used by police and federal authorities have been shown to exhibit a temporary reduction in ballistic capability when soaking wet (>15% moisture pickup). I find it interesting to note that this is only when wet. When the armor dries, full performance is restored. Has something to do with the chemical properties - liquid crystal polymers!

If you want to know about soft body armor with inserts - currently the most reccomended material are ceramic armor inserts. Ceramic being what it is - it would need to be some pretty hot stuff to be an issue - though heat transfer would cook the person inside, I would think :)

BTW - not sure what this is for, but you might be interested to read this: http://www.udel.edu/PR/UDaily/2004/armor052404.html - its about a new liquid body armor technology that this group has come up with. Cool stuff :)

[winneganfake.livejournal.com]

Long story short, I don't need to worry about fire dangers from combat lasers- I'd be dead before the vest burnt up. Ok.

[wakko.livejournal.com]

I think I see where you're going with this...

Kevlar body armor is only designed to absorb the kinetic energy imparted by "slow" ballistic projectiles (i.e. hand guns). Most body armors convey little to no protection from even the most basic of hunting rifle rounds (.308 or .30-06 will punch through basic kevlar without even batting an eyelash).

The grade of kevlar given to SWAT and more advanced teams IS spec'ed out to handle higher-powered munitions, but even it has its limits and won't protect against everything.

I can only presume that any sort of energy-based futuristic weaponry would quickly and easily bypass any sort of protection Kevlar might afford. About the only thing that may provide some sort of resistance to a concentrated energy beam would be the ceramic plates some body armors employ.

[winneganfake.livejournal.com]

Honestly It's already set that a BP vest would do nothing against energy weapons- it was more an issue of wether or not I'd need to throw in "bursts into flame" rules by default on that kind of material.

[wakko.livejournal.com]

I'd think that would be a feature that would make the wearers of body armor a bit less inclined to wear it. ;-)