Ballistic impact simulation of 3-D rectangular braided composite struck by steel projectile at microstructure level

This paper presents a microstructure model which has the same fiber volume fraction and tows' spatial configuration with 4-step 3-D rectangular braided composite to simulate the ballistic impact damage of the composite struck by steel projectile. The commercial FEM code of Ls-Dyna was employed to calculate interactions between the composite and the steel projectile. From comparisons of residual velocities between simulation and experiment, it is proven the microstructure model can simulate the ballistic penetration with higher precision than the continuum model, especially for impact damage. The acceleration vs. time curve reveals the complicated interaction between composite and projectile in ballistic penetration. The prominent advantage of the microstructure model is that it can simulate damages of the braided composite to disclose the interactions between the composite and the projectile more precisely.