Effects of architecture on ballistic resistance of textile fabrics: Numerical study

Abstract

Composite textiles composed of materials such as Kevlar, Dyneema and Zylon are extensively used in many force/impact protection applications, such as body armor, and automobile and airplane engine fragment resistant containment. Significant effort has been devoted to ballistic testing of composite fabrics made from various manufacturing processes and designs. Performing comprehensive ballistic and impact tests for these composite textiles is a very time-consuming and costly task. Numerical models are presented in this research, thereby providing predictive capability for the manufacturer and designer to minimize field testing, as well as shedding light on to the damage mechanisms of composite fabrics subjected to ballistic impact. Several representative composite fabric architectures (such as plain weave, basket weave and knitted fabrics) are generated for finite element analysis. Numerical investigation is conducted on these fabric structures of the same mass per unit area subjected to projectile impacts. Failure patterns of woven and knitted fabrics obtained from numerical simulations are compared with those observed experimentally. Performances of the representative textile structures are evaluated based on the resultant velocity of the projectile, as well as various energy components. The influences of yarnyarn and yarn-projectile friction properties on the ballistic performance of various textile structures are presented. To highlight the effects of projectile geometry and angular rotation on the fracture of woven and knitted fabrics, a series of simulations are also performed with three distinctive projectiles of the same mass and impact energy.

Influences of weaving architectures on the impact resistance of multi-layer fabrics

“…Among the various mechanisms influencing the impact resistance of fabrics, weaving architecture is identified as one of the major factors influencing the mechanical performance and energy absorption of fabrics. In particular, the woven fabric composites provide more balance in strength, stiffness and toughness when compared with other textile fabrics [9]. Their simple fabrication process lowers the manufacturing cost, particularly for components with complex shapes in structural design.…”

Textiles and Fabrics for Enhanced Structural Glass Facades: Potentials and Challenges

“…Experimental and FE numerical investigations were carried out by several researchers, in the last years, to explore the potential and feasibility of these textile curtains, so that they could be efficiently used as a passive protection device for glass facades, see [88][89][90][91][92][93]. Careful consideration was spent, in [89,91], for the assessment of major effects and failure process of woven fabric drapes (Twaron® plain weave samples), under ballistic impact (0.22 calibre bullet projectiles with spherical For example, several non-woven technologies can be used for blast-resistant curtains [87]. The common feature of these solutions, when specifically intended for glass windows and facades, is that they are designed to protect the occupants from possible glass shards.…”

Ballistic and impact protection finishes for textiles

“…Several numerical simulations (Sun et al ., 2012 ;Tran et al ., 2013 ), semi-empirical simulations (Cunniff, 1996 ), and analytical predictions of ballistic impact behaviour (Naik et al ., 2006 ;Ha-Minh et al ., 2013 ) have been performed to minimize fi eld testing. Absorption of energy after impact on multilayered textiles, composites and STF fi nished textiles has been theoretically simulated.…”