Influence of fabric structure and thickness on the ballistic impact behavior of Ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene composite laminate

•We examine the ballistic impact behavior of single-ply 3D orthogonal woven fabric composites.•The failure mechanisms are investigated in term of the geometry sizes of penetration holes in the thickness direction.•Plugging and hole friction are the dominant failure modes for thinner composite laminates.•Delamination, fiber tension and bulge become the main failure modes for thicker composite laminates.•Impact properties will increase if in-plane yarns and Z-yarns of single-ply 3D orthogonal woven fabric are optimized.

This paper presents the influence of fabric structure and thickness on the ballistic impact behavior of Ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) composite laminate. UHMWPE composite laminates, reinforced by three kinds of fabric structures, unidirectional prepreg, 2D plain-woven and 3D single-ply orthogonal woven fabrics, were fabricated via hot pressing curing process. Through a series of standard ballistic tests, we demonstrated that unidirectional composite laminates exhibit higher ballistic impact velocity and absorbed energy capacity compared to others. A bi-linear relationship was found between the ballistic limit velocity and specimen thickness. Furthermore, the dominant failure mechanisms of unidirectional composite laminates were identified to be plugging and hole friction for thin laminates, whereas delamination, fiber tension and bulging for thick ones.