A unit cell approach of finite element calculation of ballistic impact damage of 3-D orthogonal woven composite

This paper presents ballistic impact damages of 3-D orthogonal woven composite in finite element analysis (FEA) and experimental. A unit-cell model of the 3-D woven composite was developed to define the material behavior and failure evolution. A user-defined subroutine VUAMT was compiled and connected with commercial available FEA code ABAQUS/Explicit to calculate the ballistic penetration. Ballistic impact tests were conducted to investigate impact damage of 3-D kevlar/glass hybrid woven composite. Residual velocities of conically-cylindrical steel projectiles (Type 56 in China Military Standard) and impact damage of the composite targets after ballistic perforation were compared both in theoretical and experimental. The reasonable agreements between FEA results and experimental results prove the validity of the unit-cell model in ballistic limit prediction of the 3-D woven composite. We believe such an effort could be extended to bulletproof armor design with the 3-D woven composite.