To predict the resistance to penetration of the ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene laminate（UHMWPEL） accurately， a three-dimensional finite element simulating method of composite structures laminate based on the ABAQUS/Explicit solver platform was developed. A user-defined subroutine VUMAT was proposed to define material behavior by dividing the laminate into two parts with orthotropic lamina and cohesive interface. The lamina and cohesive interface utilized the Hashin criterion and the quadratic stress criterion as the damage initiation criterion separately， while both of them adopted the bilinear constitutive model and the damage evolution method derived from fracture toughness. The residual velocities and damage states of UHMWPEL with thickness of 10 mm and 20 mm penetrated by wedge-shaped steel fragment simulation projectile（FSP） with different initial impact velocities were simulated. The results show that， compared with the existing experiments， the prediction errors of ballistic limits of 10 mm and 20 mm UHMWPEL are 0.6% and 11.3%， respectively， and those of all residual velocities of FSP are less than 14.2%. During the damage and failure process of UHMWPEL， punching failure and local bulging occur in the first stage， followed by large-scale bulging， large-area delamination and fiber tensile failure. This two-stage characterization is similar to that observed in existing experiments， which verifies the reliability of the proposed simulating method.