Effect of Ballistic Impact on Stiffened Cylindrical Fuel tanks made of Kevlar/CFRP/GFRP/Kenaf Composite Laminates

The survivability of military vehicles depends significantly on the ballistic resistance of fuel tanks, which remain one of the most vulnerable components under high-velocity impact. Hybrid fiber-reinforced composites such as Kevlar, Carbon-fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP), Glass-fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP), and kenaf offer an alternative to traditional metallic fuel tanks due to their superior strength-to-weight ratio and energy dissipation characteristics. This study aims to evaluate the ballistic response of stiffened cylindrical composite fuel tanks fabricated with various hybrid laminate configurations. Explicit Dynamic analysis was performed to simulate the impact of ballast on cylindrical composite fuel tanks made of Kevlar/Kenaf/GFRP, Kevlar/Kenaf/CFRP, and Kevlar/GFRP/CFRP laminate configurations. Each of these laminates was examined with three different orientations namely 0 ° /45 ° /90 ° , 45 ° /90 ° /45 ° , and 90 ° /45 ° /90 ° . The results indicated that the Kevlar/GFRP/CFRP laminate with 0 ° /45 ° /90 ° orientation exhibited the most balanced ballistic performance, showing up to 12.9% reduction in deformation and over 42% reduction in residual velocity with enhanced energy absorption ( ~ 70 J). Thus, integrating performance-informed stiffeners with hybrid composite laminates provides an effective strategy for developing lightweight, high-performance fuel tanks for defense applications.