Finite Element Method Modeling Strategies for Fiber-Based Ballistic Composites: from Discrete Fiber Models to Digital Twins of Fabrics

Abstract The invention of high-performance fibers has revolutionized the armor industry by enabling the replacement of heavy, monolithic steel plates with lightweight multilayered systems. As a result, woven fabrics, multi-layered structures and fiber-reinforced composites have become key components of modern protective solutions and the focus of intensive research. From a computational perspective, accurately and realistically capturing their dynamic response remains a major challenge. The complex mesoscale architecture of yarn interlacing, strong mechanical nonlinearity, evolving fiber-fiber interactions and the inherently multiscale behavior of multilayered composites require the use of advanced numerical methods. This review synthesizes key numerical modeling strategies, constitutive formulations, and experimental methods used in the analysis of fiber-based composites for ballistic protection. Selecting an appropriate modeling strategy can improve predictive accuracy, but often at the cost of a substantial increase in computational effort, in some cases by up to two orders of magnitude. The same problem is observed in the context of material models, whose calibration requires from 4 to even 30 parameters. In this context, particular attention is given to the influence of geometric modeling choices, material behavior description, discretization strategies and scale-transition methodologies on the predictive capability of numerical simulations. The work also discusses experimental aspects relevant to model calibration and reviews commonly used numerical simulation software. The main contribution of this work is a critical assessment of existing modeling approaches, the identification of unsolved research challenges, and a discussion of directions for further development in numerical simulations of ballistic impact in fibrous composites.