Abstract
Dyneema (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene) based composite panels are used as armor material and give protection against fragments, bullets or other projectiles. In this paper, a new modeling approach to predict the ballistic strength of Dyneema composite is described. This approach is based on detailed modeling in combination with a decomposition of material properties. In the past, continuum approaches and discrete layered modeling have been used by other researchers to predict the response of Dyneema composite panels loaded by impact. These approaches were however not successful in predicting the ballistic strength, because fiber sliding, fiber failure and delamination of layers were not taken into account and static properties of the material were used. This often resulted in a calculated ballistic strength that was too low. In this research, these phenomena are taken into account in the proposed model together with dynamically determined material properties and it is expected that a better strength prediction should be possible. The modeling of Dyneema composite is done in ABAQUS/Standard for the quasi-static simulations and in ABAQUS/Explicit for the dynamic simulations and show more details than previously developed models.
