Ballistic performance of the UHMWPE fiber-reinforced composite helmet: Experiments and numerical simulations

IF 5.7 1区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, CIVIL Thin-Walled Structures Pub Date : 2025-01-31 DOI:10.1016/j.tws.2025.113037

Qiran Sun , Jun Lin , Yanzhe Gai , Yongqiang Li

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The composite helmet has proven effective in protecting soldiers against high-speed projectile penetration. However, blunt head injuries caused by significant back face deformation (BFD) after ballistic impacts remain a critical issue. The current study evaluated the ballistic performance of an ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) helmet through ballistic testing and finite element simulation. The 6 mm thick UHMWPE helmet was impacted by a 7.62 × 25 mm full metal jacket (FMJ) bullet at three locations: frontal, lateral, and crown. To capture precise deformation data, simultaneous BFDs were measured using Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technology. Corresponding finite element model was subsequently developed and validated. Both experimental and simulation results indicated that the UHMWPE helmet experienced localized damage with a plastic hinge and notable delamination during impact. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of BFD across different impact locations revealed that the frontal impact presented the highest risk of head injury, followed by the crown and lateral impacts. The study also explored the effect of helmet thickness on ballistic performance, finding that increasing thickness enhanced the helmet's ability to mitigate BFD with a nonlinear weakened trend. The study provides valuable insights into the protective capabilities of UHMWPE helmets and a helpful suggestion for evaluating hybrid composite helmets in future investigations.

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来源期刊

Thin-Walled Structures 工程技术-工程：土木

CiteScore

9.60

自引率

20.30%

发文量

801

审稿时长

66 days

期刊介绍： Thin-walled structures comprises an important and growing proportion of engineering construction with areas of application becoming increasingly diverse, ranging from aircraft, bridges, ships and oil rigs to storage vessels, industrial buildings and warehouses. Many factors, including cost and weight economy, new materials and processes and the growth of powerful methods of analysis have contributed to this growth, and led to the need for a journal which concentrates specifically on structures in which problems arise due to the thinness of the walls. This field includes cold– formed sections, plate and shell structures, reinforced plastics structures and aluminium structures, and is of importance in many branches of engineering. The primary criterion for consideration of papers in Thin–Walled Structures is that they must be concerned with thin–walled structures or the basic problems inherent in thin–walled structures. Provided this criterion is satisfied no restriction is placed on the type of construction, material or field of application. Papers on theory, experiment, design, etc., are published and it is expected that many papers will contain aspects of all three.