1. www.bristol.ac.uk/composites
A modelling approach has been
developed to predict the mechanical
and kinematic behavior of woven
fabrics during compaction. The key
benefit of this method is that the
dependency on detailed geometric
and mechanical examination of the
physical specimen is removed.
Hence, the possibility of making
accurate predictions without access
to the physical specimen is attained.
High fidelity modelling of the compaction
behaviour of 2D woven fabrics
Adam Thompson, Bassam El Said, Dmitry Ivanov,
Jonathan Belnoue, Stephen Hallett
Modelling Approach
The method uses a two step modelling
framework -
The first step uses a kinematic multi-chain
element method to generate the initial as-
woven fabric geometry.
The second step uses this geometry to
generate a 3D finite element model. This is
coupled with a hyper-elastic material model
which describes the behavior of a single yarn.
Modelling Single and Multi-Layer
compaction
Single or multiple layers can then be
compacted to examine and predict both the
geometrical changes and mechanical
response of the fabric or layup.
Comparisons with X-ray CT scans show the
method gives good predictions for both yarn
path and yarn cross-section deformations.
The method is also able to capture effects of
layer stacking and nesting on the mechanical
compaction response as shown below.
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0.25
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0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65
Pressure(MPa)
Volume Fraction
Single Layer
6 Layer Aligned
6 Layer Arbitrary Shift
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