Derivation of the material models for ultra-high molecular-weight polyethylene fiber-reinforced armor-grade composites with different architectures

Purpose – To overcome the problem of inferior through-the-thickness mechanical properties displayed by armor-grade composites based on two-dimensional (2D) reinforcement architectures, armor-grade composites based on three-dimensional (3D) fiber-reinforcement architectures have recently been investigated experimentally. The paper aims to discuss this issue. Design/methodology/approach – The subject of the present work is armor-grade composite materials reinforced using ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene fibers and having four (two 2D and two 3D) prototypical architectures, as well as the derivation of the corresponding material models. The effect of the reinforcement architecture is accounted for by constructing the appropriate unit cells (within which the constituent materials and their morphologies are represented explicitly) and subjecting them to a series of virtual mechanical tests (VMTs). The results obtained are used within a post-processing analysis to derive and parameterize the correspondi...