Composite and textile armor systems are increasingly being utilized as impact protection materials in weight critical environments. Applications range from protective shielding for space vehicles against hypervelocity impacts, to personal protective equipment of the soldier against ballistic threat. The use of composite and textile armor systems can result in a reduction in weight while maintaining impact performance, or increased impact performance for a given weight. The limitations of performing controlled impact experiments, especially at higher velocities, on composite and textile materials means that there is a need to study these events using numerical simulations.

Numerical investigations of ballistic fragment impacts on Polyethylene based fiber composite (Dyneema) [12] and Kevlar/Epoxy [13] body armor have been performed at Century Dynamics and are briefly described below and compared with experimental work.