Ballistic Impact of Textile Structures

Previous work on transverse impact of single textile fibers is reviewed and extended to model orthogonal weaves in which fiber crossovers are simplified as pin. joints. A dynamic finite-element computer technique previously developed for single fibers is extended to model the woven panel, and this method is shown to produce results which are in sub stantial agreement with experimental observations of ballistic nylon panels. Impact of a woven textile panel is shown to exhibit substantial differences compared to the equivalent impact of a single fiber, primarily in that the propagating strain waves experience pervasive and complex interactions due to the influence of the fiber crossovers. The vast majority of ballistic energy is seen to be deposited in the orthogonal fibers passing through the impact point, while the other fibers are essentially ineffective, which suggests possible improvements in the design of textile structures intended for dynamic impact applications.