Experimental Development of a Constitutive Model for High-Speed Impact Containment Fabrics

Test methods to obtain constitutive material properties of fabrics used for containing high-speed projectiles are presented. The material models are general enough to be used for both static and dynamic/explicit finite element analyses. Tension Tests were conducted to develop the longitudinal and transverse material properties. Trellising Picture Frame Shear Tests were used in investigating the shear resistance properties of the fabrics, followed by friction tests to determine the coefficient of friction between fabric layers. In addition to these basic material tests, experiments were conducted on systems built with fabric wraps. Ballistic tests of containment wraps subjected to a high velocity projectile were carried out at NASA-Glenn Research Center. These tests have provided benchmark results to validate the finite element methodology used for the analysis of the containment systems.