Ballistic performance of hybrid and non-hybrid composite plates

This paper presents an experimental and numerical study to understand ballistic behavior of plain-weave hybrid and non-hybrid composites. The effect of hybridization on ballistic limit (V50) was investigated. The hybrid S2 glass-IM7 graphite fibers/toughened SC-79 resin, non-hybrid S2 glass-fiber/toughened SC-79 resin, and non-hybrid IM7 graphite fibers/toughened SC-79 resin composites plates were impacted at various velocities. The three-dimensional dynamic nonlinear finite element code, LS-DYNA, modified with a proposed user-defined nonlinear-orthotropic damage model, was adopted to simulate the experimental results. The combined results obtained from experiments and finite element simulations were then used for determining V50 for each lay-up configuration. Good agreement between experimental and FE results was found from the comparison of dynamic strain and damage patterns. The hybridization found to be very effective on ballistic limit velocities of woven composites.