Effect of impactor shapes and yarn frictional effects on plain woven fabric puncture simulation

Research in modeling and simulation of woven fabrics has been quite intensive in the past decade. The simulation studies presented confined consideration of crimp and extension roles in the damage deformation process, in particular tensile and puncture. Most simulation works are struggling to relate internal yarn interactions with respective damage modes due to the unit cell approach. Hence, in the present study, an alternative finite element analysis approach was proposed to model yarn crimp and extension response during puncture based on the validated uniaxial tensile and puncture models. Puncture stress–strain, post-impact kinetic energy and damage evolution of full-scale woven fabrics models were evaluated with two impactor shapes and three friction levels. The results show that puncture damage behavior is the critical dependent of the magnitude of impactor shapes and yarn frictional contacts. Good comparisons with the experimental and previous studies demonstrate the approach’s suitability for modeling textile in composites.