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

IF 6.6 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

{"title":"Ballistic performance of the UHMWPE fiber-reinforced composite helmet: Experiments and numerical simulations","authors":"Qiran Sun , Jun Lin , Yanzhe Gai , Yongqiang Li","doi":"10.1016/j.tws.2025.113037","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>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.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":49435,"journal":{"name":"Thin-Walled Structures","volume":"210 ","pages":"Article 113037"},"PeriodicalIF":6.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Thin-Walled Structures","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0263823125001314","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, CIVIL","Score":null,"Total":0}

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.

查看原文

微信好友朋友圈 QQ好友复制链接

本刊更多论文

超高分子量聚乙烯纤维增强复合材料头盔的弹道性能：实验与数值模拟

复合头盔已被证明在保护士兵免受高速弹丸穿透方面是有效的。然而，钝性头部损伤引起的显著背部变形（BFD）后的弹道冲击仍然是一个关键问题。本研究通过弹道试验和有限元模拟对超高分子量聚乙烯（UHMWPE）头盔的弹道性能进行了评估。6毫米厚的超高分子量聚乙烯头盔被7.62 × 25毫米全金属护套（FMJ）子弹击中三个位置：正面、侧面和顶部。为了获取精确的变形数据，使用数字图像相关（DIC）技术测量了同时的bfd。随后建立了相应的有限元模型并进行了验证。实验和仿真结果表明，UHMWPE头盔在冲击过程中发生了局部损伤，具有塑性铰和明显的分层现象。此外，不同撞击部位的BFD对比分析显示，正面撞击对头部损伤的风险最高，其次是冠部和侧面撞击。研究还探讨了头盔厚度对弹道性能的影响，发现头盔厚度的增加增强了头盔对BFD的抑制能力，且呈非线性减弱趋势。该研究为超高分子量聚乙烯头盔的防护性能提供了有价值的见解，并为今后的研究评估混合复合材料头盔提供了有益的建议。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文去求助

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.