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An Experimental and Numerical Study of the Impact Response (V50) of Flexible Plain Weave Fabrics: Accounting for Statistical Distributions of Yarn Strength

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Thu, 2015-08-20 13:45 — Ahmad A. Abu-Obaid
Authors: 
Gaurav Nilakantan
Center for Composite Materials, University of Delaware, DE 19716, USA
Cameron Showell
Ahmad A. Abu-Obaid
Center for Composite Materials, University of Delaware, DE 19716, USA
Michael Keefe
Center for Composite Materials, University of Delaware, DE 19716, USA
J. W. Gillespie Jr4
Center for Composite Materials, University of Delaware, DE 19716, USA
Travis A. Bogetti
US Army Research Laboratory Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005, USA
Rob Adkinson
US Army Research Laboratory Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005, USA
Preferred Abstract (Original): 
Plain weave fabrics comprised of high-strength continuous-filament yarns such as Kevlar are used in many applications requiring impact and penetration resistance against high energy projectiles. Computationally simulating the impact of these fabrics using a finite element (FE) analysis is an extremely useful tool to investigate architectural and material effects on the performance of fabric systems. However for the past decade, many fabric FE models including both those with homogenized and explicit yarn level architectures often utilize a deterministic approach wherein all yarns in the fabric model are assigned to the same strength. However experimental studies show that the tensile strength distribution of yarns follows a statistical distribution, due to the inherent defects in each filament. This statistical variation in constituent yarn material properties is one of the major contributing factors to statistical variations in the performance of the fabric system under identical impact conditions. To enhance the predictive capability of the fabric FE model, it is important to be able to incorporate this statistical material data into the computational analysis. A series of impact simulations can then be run using a Monte Carlo approach. The scatter in residual velocity for a given impact velocity is tracked and compared to experimentally obtained results. This framework can then be applied to investigate the performance of fabrics comprised of different materials and architectures, as well as for different types of projectiles, leading to savings in the time and cost associated with the full scale experimental testing. The focus of this paper is to present the experimental data of statistical yarn strength, and the framework for incorporating this data into the FE model to statistically assess the fabric impact performance.
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