A hybrid polymer–water peridynamics model for ballistic penetration damage of soft materials

Numerically understanding the dynamic response of soft materials subject to high-speed penetration is crucial for advancing transdermal delivery technologies and analyzing injuries related to ballistics. Due to the complexity in material correspondence models and the difficulty of simulating high-speed impact damage problems using traditional mesh-based numerical techniques, precisely capturing mechanical behaviors of soft materials following ballistic penetration remains challenging. This work proposes a novel hybrid polymer–water model within the peridynamics (PD) framework to accurately clarify the complex damage process of soft materials subject to ballistic penetration. We propose the hybrid interactions comprising of water–water, polymer–polymer, and polymer–water interactions, which embodies the subscale nature of various components and captures the constitutive features of soft materials. A novel decomposition scheme for the deformation gradient is proposed to overcome the limitations in traditional non-ordinary state-based PD where only homogeneous particles are involved in the influence domain, extending the scope of PD theory to mixed material systems. The superior effectiveness and applicability of proposed model are demonstrated through compression, shear, fracture tests. Regarding to the case of high-velocity penetration, both motion profiles of projectile and pressure profiles of gelatin after penetration can be captured in line with physics awareness. The proposed model offers a reasonable and practical representation of soft material from the perspective of a particle-based approach and enhances the potential applications of PD framework for simulating large deformation and dynamic response of soft materials. © 2023 Elsevier B.V.