Effect of statistical yarn tensile strength on the probabilistic impact response of woven fabrics

The probabilistic impact response of flexible woven fabrics can be described through the V0–V100 or probabilistic velocity response (PVR) curve which describes the probability of fabric penetration as a function of projectile impact velocity. One source of variability that affects the probabilistic nature of fabric impact performance is the statistical distribution of yarn tensile strengths. In this paper the effects of the statistical yarn strength distribution characteristics on the probabilistic fabric impact response are computationally studied using five different strength distributions with differing mean strengths and distribution widths. Corresponding fabric PVR curves are generated for each strength distribution using a probabilistic computational framework that involves randomly mapping yarn strengths onto the individual woven yarns of a fabric finite element model and then running a series of impact simulations for the case of a four-sided clamped fabric impacted at the center by a spherical projectile.