Ballistic Impact Behaviour of Thermoplastic Kevlar Composites: Parametric Studies

The objective of the present study is to investigate the ballistic impact behavior of Kevlar/Polypropylene (PP) composites through hydrocode simulations performed in ANSYS AUTODYN-2D/3D. The studies are carried out based on the experimental and numerical investigation of ballistic impact response of Kevlar/PP composites reported in our recent work [Bandaru et al. Ballistic impact response of Kevlar® reinforced thermoplastic composite armors, Int J Impact Eng 2016;89:1-13]. The interface between the Kevlar and PP matrix is improved by adding polypropylene grafted with Maleic anhydride. The numerical model is validated by evaluating the ballistic impact performance of Kevlar/PP composites when impacted with STANAG-2920 fragment simulating projectile (FSP). Kevlar/PP showed improved ballistic impact performance than that of the Kevlar/Vinylester composite reported in the literature. Numerical simulations are further extended to study the influence of the mass of the projectile on the ballistic impact performance of Kevlar/PP composite armors in terms of ballistic limit, energy absorption and residual velocity. It is observed that shear plugging is the dominant failure mechanism in thermoplastic composites.