EFFECT OF FRICTIONS ON THE BALLISTIC PERFORMANCE OF A 3D WARP INTERLOCK FABRIC: NUMERICAL ANALYSIS

This paper presents a new tool that permits to generate geometry model of any woven fabric, then, mesh this model in shell or solid elements, and apply the yarns mechanical properties to them. The tool shows many advantages over existing software. It can be largely applied because of compatibility with popular finite element codes such as Abaqus, Ansys, Radioss etc. Using this tool, a finite element model was carried out to study the effect of friction onto the ballistic impact behavior of a 3D warp interlock fabric. Results showed that the friction among yarns affects considerably on the impact behavior of this fabric. The effect of the friction between projectile and yarn is less important. The friction plays an important role in keeping the fabric structural stability during the impact event. This phenomenon explained why the projectile is easier to penetrate this 3D warp interlock fabric in the no-friction case.