Experimental and simulated investigation of temperature distribution of UHMWPE laminated composites during hot pressing process

In this article, the influence of molding temperature on the mechanical properties and ballistic impact behavior of the ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) laminated composites has been investigated. The results demonstrate that with the temperature increasing from 80 to 120 °C, the tensile strength decreases while the interlaminar bonding strength increases. The UHMWPE laminated composites manufactured by hot pressing of 75 layers UHMWPE fabrics show excellent ballistic performance when the molding temperature reaches 120 °C, indicating that dominant failure mechanism of the UHMWPE laminated composites are delamination, the fiber tension as well as bulging. Furthermore, a numerical model has been proposed to predict the temperature distribution of the UHMWPE laminated composites for a better understanding of the effect of molding temperature on the ballistic performance. The results show that the simulated results and experimental data are in good agreement. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018 , 135, 45874.