BALLISTIC IMPACT MODELING OF COMPOSITE MATERIALS

A computational constitutive model has been developed to characterize the progressive failure be- haviors of composite laminates under high velocity ballistic impact conditions. The composite failure model has been implemented within LS-DYNA as a regular material subroutine. The inte- grated code was successfully utilized to predict the damage and ballistic behavior of composite laminates subjected to various ballistic impact conditions. The availability of this design tool will greatly facilitate the development of composite structures with enhanced ballistic survivability.