Ballistic performance and damage behavior of three-dimensional angle-interlock woven fabric under ballistic impact: Numerical investigation

Abstract

3D woven fabrics possess excellent specific performance and processability, making them highly favorable in the field of protective engineering, particularly in applications such as body armor. It is critical to evaluate their ballistic response under various impact loadings for both material manufacturing and application purposes. This paper presents a full-size mesoscale finite element model to investigate the dynamic damage behavior of 3D angle-interlock woven fabric (3DAWF) under ballistic impact. The effectiveness of the proposed numerical model is verified through a comparison with available experimental data in terms of ballistic performance and damage morphology. The effects of projectile shape, impact angle, and pre-stretching loading on the ballistic performance of 3DAWF are discussed. It is observed that 3DAWF demonstrates different impact resistance with different projectile shapes due to variations in the impact area and damage mechanism. The friction generated by projectile sliding plays a significant role in dissipating projectile kinetic energy under oblique impact. Moreover, pre-stretching is found to enhance the ballistic limit and energy absorption of 3DAWF to a certain extent.