Impact Resistance and Buckling Mitigation in Hybrid Textile–Polymer Composite Helmets
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66279/x0magp70Keywords:
Hybrid Textile Composites, Protective Helmets, Mitigating Buckling, Impact Damage Assessment, Indentation Severity IndexAbstract
This study presents an innovative approach to protective helmet design by integrating textile-reinforced polymer composites with structural geometries inspired by ancient Egyptian wrapping techniques. Finite element analysis was employed to examine the influence of fabric strip layouts on stress distribution and to support the development of the proposed helmet architecture. A polyester–jute hybrid configuration (H2) helmet was subsequently fabricated and experimentally evaluated under repeated vertical drop-weight impacts. Its performance was compared with pure jute (H1), pure cotton (H3), and conventional thermoplastic (H4) helmet shells. The H2 configuration demonstrated outstanding structural resilience, withstanding 20 consecutive impacts ranging from 14.71 J to 51.80 J and absorbing a cumulative impact of 738.69 J with very low measurable permanent deformation of 0.2 cm. In contrast, the pure jute shell failed during the first impact due to severe delamination and strip separation, while the cotton and thermoplastic reference shells exhibited permanent residual deformations of 1.5 cm and 1.3 cm, respectively. The superior performance of the H2 configuration is attributed to the combined effect of vertical load-carrying fabric strips and circumferential confinement provided by a horizontal reinforcement strip at the helmet rim, which improves load redistribution, delays local buckling, and enhances impact energy absorption. The findings demonstrate the potential of sustainable hybrid textile–polymer composites as lightweight and efficient structural solutions for advanced protective headgear applications.
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