Numerical Simulation of Mechanical Behaviour of Dynamically Stressed Fencing Mask

Development and improvement of protective clothing has always been a challenging task. New materials and innovative production processes lead to safer and more comfortable products. Because of the large number of influence parameters, optimization by experiments is time-consuming and presents numerous difficulties. Parameter studies can be conduced using computer simulation contribute substantially to development time reduction and product innovations.The explicit variant of Finite-Element-Method (FEM) for realistic simulation of mechanical properties of knitted fabrics was applied within the scope of an AIF- and DFG-project. With this method, it was possible for the first itme, to model the complex three-dimensional volume contact situations between clasping threads and account for surface friction. The simulation of the penetrating test for a wire fabric of a fencing mask illustrate the efficency of this novel method and the potential for applying the method in the field of protective clothing.