Ballistic strain-rate-dependent material modelling of glass-fibre woven composite based on the prediction of a meso-heterogeneous approach

An effective and efficient methodology based on a strain-rate-dependent material model that can be applied to the simulations of ballistic impact on woven composites is presented in this paper. Firstly, a meso-heterogeneous model (fibre and matrix separately modelled) of R-glass-fibre woven composite was built and validated by tensile tests. Then, the model was used to obtain a strain-rate-dependent homogeneous material model with low computational cost and with a novel numerical environment to simulate high-velocity impact of the composite. Later, the proposed simulation framework was validated by conducting ballistic tests on the woven composite using full metal jacket (FMJ) projectiles. Exploiting strain-rate-dependent homogeneous material model, more accurate predictions of the composite delamination area and the residual velocity of projectiles were obtained compared to that without considering strain rate effects, especially for thick woven composites. The strain rate effect on targets with different thicknesses and the projectile deformation were also analysed.