Authors : S.L. Gombi and Chandan Inamdar
Abstract: Today, composites are expansively used in almost every field like in aerospace, automobile, military, industries, construction and many more. In these fields, they may be exposed to impact loads at times, ballistic loads to be precise. Therefore, it is very important to be aware of the response, damage evolution and the behavior of the material to such loads. Impact load is a rate-dependent load and acts for a short time but does the damage. This study intends to optimize the existing Kevlar epoxy material for the ballistic helmets. An effort is made to suggest a suitable replacement for the same. The material considered here is a carbon fiber epoxy composite. A finite element model of three dimensions is developed for the composite laminate. The ballistic impact of two bullets on this composite is simulated employing finite element method using ANSYS workbench 15 explicit dynamics and the same is validated analytically. The energy absorbed upon impact is checked for different thicknesses and for different kinds of laminate. At the end, a suitable kind of laminate with a suitable thickness is suggested for the replacement.
S.L. Gombi and Chandan Inamdar, 2017. Analysis of Composite Laminate Under Ballistic Impact by Bullets of Different Types. Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 12: 6473-6480.