Ballistic impact behavior of the aramid and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene composites

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental study of fiber type, fabric structure, orientation of fabric plies and thickness on the ballistic impact behavior of aramid and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) composite laminates. Aramid composite laminates are reinforced by three kinds of fabric structures and UHMWPE composite laminates are reinforced by two kinds of fabric structures. The laminates are fabricated via autoclave curing process. The ballistic behavior of composite laminates is evaluated by ballistic limit velocity, and energy absorbed at ballistic limit. Through a series of ballistic tests, it is demonstrated that unidirectional composite laminates exhibit higher ballistic limit velocity and energy absorption on unit weight basis compared to other laminates. Interesting results are shown by UD-UHMWPE-H62® and UD-UHMWPE-Endumax® fabric-reinforced laminates. Orientation of fabric plies is found to have insignificant effect on ballistic behavior irrespective of material type. A bi-linear relationship is found between the ballistic limit velocity, energy absorption and specimen thickness.

Keywords

Composite laminates ballistic limit velocity ballistic behavior autoclave process aramids and ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Kuma . Behavior of kevlar/epoxy composite plates under ballistic impact. J Reinf Plast Compos 2010; 29: 2048–2064.

Faur-Csukat

. A study on the ballistic performance of composites. Macromol Symposia 2006; 239: 217–226.

Cheeseman

Bogetti

. Ballistic impact into fabric and compliant composite laminates. Compos Struct 2003; 61: 161–173.

Bhatnagar

. Lightweight ballistic composites, Cambridge: Woodhead Publishing Limited, 2006.

Lee

. Failure of spectra® polyethylene fiber-reinforced composites under ballistic impact loading. J Compos Mater 1994; 28: 1202–1226.

Naik

Shrirao

. Composite structures under ballistic impact. Compos Struct 2004; 66: 579–590.

Prosser

. Penetration of nylon ballistic panels by fragment-simulating projectiles1 Part I: a linear approximation to the relationship between the square of the V50 or Vc striking velocity and the number of layers of cloth in the ballistic panel. Text Res J 1998; 58: 61–85.

Cunniff PM. Decoupled response of textile body armor. In: Proc. 18th Int. Symp. on Ballistics, 1999, pp.814–821.

Larsson

Svensson

. Carbon, polyethylene and PBO hybrid fiber composites for structural light weight armour. Composites 2002; 33: 221–231.

10.

Pandya

. Ballistic impact behavior of hybrid composites. Mater Design 2013; 44: 128–135.

11.

Lim

. Finite-element modeling of the ballistic impact of fabric armor. Int J Impact Eng 2003; 28: 13–31.

12.

Jenq

. Predicting the ballistic limit for plain woven glass/epoxy composite laminate. Int J Impact Eng 1994; 15: 451–464.

13.

Chan

. Ballistic limit prediction using a numerical model with progressive damage capability. Compos Struct 2007; 77: 466–474.

14.

Yen C-F. Ballistic impact modeling of composite materials. In 7th International LS-DYNA Users Conference, 2002, pp.22060–6218.

15.

Mamivand

Liaghat

. A model for ballistic impact on multi-layer fabric targets. Int J Impact Eng 2010; 37: 806–812.

16.

Mohan

Velu

. Ballistic impact behaviour of unidirectional fibre reinforced composites. Int J Impact Eng 2014; 63: 164–176.

17.

Morye

. Modelling of the energy absorption by polymer composites upon ballistic impact. Compos Sci Technol 2000; 60: 31–42.

18.

Sheikh

. Behaviour of multiple composite plates subjected to ballistic impact. Compos Sci Technol 2009; 69: 704–710.

19.

Carrillo

. Ballistic performance of thermoplastic composite laminates made from aramid woven fabric and polypropylene matrix. Polym Testing 2012; 31: 512–519.

20.

Othman

Hassan

. Effect of different construction designs of aramid fabric on the ballistic performances. Mater Design 2013; 44: 407–413.

21.

Zee

Hsieh

. Energyabsorptionprocesses in fibrous composites. Mater Sci Eng A 1998; 246: 161–168.

22.

Zhang

. Preparation and properties of three-dimensional braided UHMWPE fiber reinforced PMMA composites. J Reinf Plast Compos 2006; 25: 1601–1609.

23.

Karahan

. An investigation into ballistic performance and energy absorption capabilities of woven aramid fabrics. Int J Impact Eng 2008; 35: 499–510.

24.

Karahan

. Effect of weaving structure and hybridization on the low-velocity impact behavior of woven carbon-epoxy composites. Fibres Text Eastern Europe 2014; 22: 109–115.

25.

Zhaoxu Dong Sun

. Testing and modelling of yarn pull-out in plain woven Kevlar fabrics. Compos Part A 2009; 40: 1863–1869.

26.

Karahan

. Investigation into the tensile properties of stitched and unstitched woven aramid/vinyl ester composites. Text Res J 2010; 80: 880–891.

27.

Karahan

. Influence of stitching parameters on tensile strength of aramid/vinyl ester composites. Mater Sc 2013; 19: 67–72.

28.

Cunniff PM. Dimensionless parameters for optimization of textile-based body armor systems. In: Proceedings of the 18th international symposium on ballistics, 1999, pp.1303–1310.

29.

Roylance D and Wang S-S. Penetration mechanics of textile structures. DTIC Document 1979.

30.

Karahan

. Comparison of ballistic performance and energy absorption capabilities of woven and unidirectional aramid fabrics. Text Res J 2008; 78: 718–730.

31.

Nayak N, et al. Ballistic performance of laminated composites against military impactors: Experimental and numerical studies. In: DYMAT-international conference on the mechanical and physical behaviour of materials under dynamic loading, 2009, pp.1761–1766.

32.

Nair

. Ballistic impact performance of composite targets. Mater Design 2013; 51: 833–846.

33.

Gama

Gillespie

Jr . Punch shear based penetration model of ballistic impact of thick-section composites. Compos Struct 2008; 86: 356–369.