Effects of textile structure and projectile geometry on ballistic performance of UHMWPE textiles

•Textile structure and projectile geometry are determined.•Failure mode, ballistic limit and energy dissipation are analyzed.•Two-dimension triaxial braided textile shows best ballistic performance. The ballistic performances of three ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) textile structures (2D braided, 2D triaxial braided and 3D orthogonal woven) are studied. The tensile strength of UHMWPE yarn is first measured by quasi-static tensile experiment. By inputting the measured material parameters, numerical models including macro-meso model and mesoscopic models are established and these numerical models are validated by a ballistic experiment of 2D braided textile. The ballistic performances of three textile structures under impact of three different head-shape projectiles (flat, sharp and hemispherical nose) are investigated, using the macro-meso model. Based on the analysis of ballistic limit, failure mode and energy dissipation, we demonstrate that the 2D triaxial braided (2D3A) textile has better ballistic performance than the 2D textile. All three textile structures show the least ballistic damage by flat projectile, followed by sharp and hemispherical projectile.