Investigation of Inter-yarn Friction Effects on the Ballistic Performance of Dyneema fabrics

This paper is to investigate the role of inter-yarn friction in ballistic performance of the single layer of Dyneema® fabric by FEA code Abaqus/explicit. Eleven pairs of coefficient of static friction (CSF) and coefficient of kinetic friction (CKF) are taken into account to indicate the levels of inter-yarn friction in the fabric. The effects of inter-yarn friction on the time history of kinetic energy (KE), strain energy(SE), frictional dissipation energy (FDE) as well as the total energy loss of the projectile were investigated. It is found that a certain levels of inter-yarn friction aids in increasing the increase speed of KE, SE, FDE and total energy loss of the projectile at the later impact stage. In addition, the influences of the inter-yarn friction on the final total energy absorption of the fabric were also studied. Among the three types of energy form (KE, SE, FDE), KE is the dominant energy absorption, followed by SE and FDE. The total energy absorption of the fabric increases with the increase of inter-yarn friction ranging from CSF and CKF (0,0) to CSF and CKF (0.7,0.65) and then slightly decreases at higher frictional condition.