Impact Dynamics Simulation for Magnetorheological Fluid Saturated Fabric Barriers

Abstract

Experimental research has investigated the non-Newtonian fluid augmentation of fabric barrier materials, aimed at adding impact energy dissipation mechanisms and thereby improving ballistic performance. Published experimental results on the effectiveness of these augmentations are mixed, and numerical models supporting complimentary modeling research are lacking, primarily due to the multiple geometric and material nonlinearities present in the system. The combination of Hamiltonian mechanics with hybrid particle-element kinematics offers a very general modeling approach to impact simulation for these systems, one which includes interstitial fluid–structure interactions, the yarn level dynamics of projectile impacts, and yarn fracture without the introduction of slidelines and without mass or energy discard. Three-dimensional (3D) impact simulations show good agreement with published experiments for magnetorheological (MR) fluid-saturated Kevlar, including fabric tested under bulk field excitation of the target region and magnetomechanically edge-clamped fabric sliding in an excited air gap. The Hamiltonian method employed to develop the system-level model allows for computationally efficient partitioning of the modeled physics while maintaining a thermodynamically consistent formulation.