Abstract: According to the fracture morphology of the plain weave carbon laminate, an analytical energy model was developed based on energy conservation law. The model considered that the kinetic energy of the projectile was absorbed by the laminate through shear failure, tensile fracture, compression deformation, delamination and moving in the crushed area during penetration. The influence of strain rate of the composite was taken into account. The depth of shear plugging was obtained by ballistic limit velocity in experiment and theory. Meanwhile, the crack length and the damage area of delamination were measured in impact experiment. The experiment for carbon weave composite laminate was conducted under flat and hemispheric projectile to obtain the ballistic limit velocity. Based on the validated model, further studies show that most energy is absorbed by tensile fracture of back surface under medium velocity, while compression deformation becomes the main absorbing mechanism under high velocity. The influence of delamination in energy absorption should be considered due to the large damage area. Meanwhile, more energy is absorbed by flat projectile than hemispherical projectile.

Key words: weave composite, carbon fiber, energy conservation, delamination, analytical model