Ballistic Impact of Twaron CT709® Plain Weave Fabrics

Abstract

The ballistic impact of Twaron CT709® plain weave fabrics is studied using a three-dimensional fabric model. The model is developed by treating each individual yarn as a continuum, and the time-dependent yarn behavior is phenomenologically described using a three-dimensional linear viscoelastic constitutive relation. A user subroutine VUMAT for ABAQUS/Explicit is compiled to incorporate the constitutive behavior. By using the newly developed model, a parametric study is carried out to analyze the effects of various parameters on the impact behavior of the fabrics, which include impact velocity, inter-yarn friction, and the number of fabric layers. The simulation results obtained include bullet residual velocity, fabric deformation and damage pattern, kinetic energy of the system, fabric strain energy, and frictional dissipation energy. The residual velocities predicted by the current model correlate well with existing experimental data, and the parametric study leads to the determination of the optimal number of fabric layers and the optimized level of inter-yarn friction that are needed to achieve the maximum energy absorption in the fabrics at specified impact velocities.