Multiscale construction and large-scale simulation of structural fabric undergoing ballistic impact

Certain classes of new lightweight structural fabric, primarily used for ballistic shielding, possess a multiscale structure constructed from microscale fibrils, which are bundled together to form yarn. The yarn are tightly woven into sheets. Since experimental ballistic tests for the evaluation, design and optimization of such materials are extremely expensive and time consuming, it is advantageous to develop models amenable to rapid computational methods. The purpose of the present work is to develop an efficient computational strategy in order to rapidly construct and numerically simulate multiscale representations of this class of materials. Large-scale simulations are presented to illustrate the potential of the approach in delivering realistic responses, involving dynamic penetration of a new lightweight structural fabric.