A macroscopic material model for woven fabrics based on mesoscopic sawtooth unit cell

Abstract

A macroscopic numerical material model based on the mesoscopic structure of woven fabrics is developed. A mesoscopic unit cell modeling approach is adopted based on the sawtooth geometry to take into account the mesoscopic length scale deformations involved. Three important woven fabric mechanical responses (Uniaxial, biaxial and shear) are implemented using continuum mechanics and constitutive relations. The material model is implemented as a user-defined-material (UMAT) within an explicit finite element framework and validated under various loading conditions by simulating different experiments (Uniaxial tensile, bias extension and indentation tests). The results show that the developed macroscale material model based on the mesoscopic unit cell is capable of capturing the woven fabric response while simulating the deformation mechanisms involved in the mesoscopic length scale.