A viscoelastic-viscoplastic thermo-mechanical model for polymers under hypervelocity impact

In hypervelocity impact (HVI) events, the thermo-mechanical behaviors of polymer materials are significantly influenced by viscous effects, thereby affecting energy absorption and shielding performance. A viscoelastic-viscoplastic thermo-mechanical model was newly developed to simulate the mechanical behavior and heat generation of polymer materials under HVI. The viscoelastic-viscoplastic constitutive equation and the Mie-Grüneisen equation of state (EOS) were applied to describe the deviatoric deformation and strongly nonlinear volumetric compression behavior. Moreover, the heat generation was calculated considering contributions from plastic work, irreversible entropy increase, and viscous dissipation which was not considered in the previous HVI numerical model. The temperature increase was calculated through adopting the apparent heat capacity method. The model was coded and seamlessly integrated into the LS-DYNA program through a user-defined material subroutine. Additionally, the FEM-SPH adaptive method was adopted to accurately simulate the fragmentation which always accompanies in the HVI event, wherein the finite element method (FEM) handles contact and deformation behavior, while the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method addresses the formation and motion of debris clouds. Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) was selected as the sample material, and its model parameters were calibrated based on the data from quasi-static and dynamic experiments. Good effectiveness and accuracy have been validated through comparing the simulation results and experimental results from the literatures. A noteworthy feature is that the model has the capability to capture the temperature distribution and various energy components induced by the impact, including viscous dissipation, plastic work, and residual energy. Finally, a comparison was made to explore the influence of viscosity on the impact response of UHMWPE plates. The analysis results indicate that material viscosity significantly improves energy absorption capabilities and overall shielding performance.