Ballistic Impact of 3D Orthogonal Woven Composite by a Spherical Bullet: Experimental Study and Numerical Simulation

Abstract

A ballistic impact experiment and numerical simulation study of Kevlar/Vinyl and E-glass/Vinyl 3D orthogonal woven composite by a spherical bullet is presented in this paper. The experiment shows that the ballistic performance of Kevlar29/Vinyl is better than E-glass/Vinyl 3D orthogonal woven composite. The analysis of damage modes points out that compression/shear failure mechanism occurs on the front side while tensile failure on the back side. The existence of Z yarns is the main cause of in-plane energy absorption mechanism. In numerical simulation, the orthogonal isotropic constitutive equation with damage tensor and Hashin failure criterion are adopted. Simulation of the penetration process is presented and the residual velocity calculated is fitted to the experimental values. Finally, the details of damage evolution of x-direction fibers and in-plane matrix are studied

Keywords

• 3D orthogonal woven composite, ballistic impact, ballistic limit, damage evolution, E-glass, Hashin failure criterion, Kevlar

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