Direct numerical simulation of 3D woven textile composites subjected to tensile loading: An experimentally validated multiscale approach

Abstract

An experimentally validated multiscale computational model for predicting the progressive damage and failure analysis (PDA) of 3D woven textile composites (3DWTCs), is presented. The 3DWTCs are made through a 3D textile weaving process and the dry fiber tows are infused with SC-15 polymer matrix into a single composite material. A thick symmetric configuration of hybridized (carbon, glass and kevlar tows) textile architecture is examined at the entire coupon level to determine the progression of damage under tensile loading and to understand the benefits of hybridization and the resulting performance enhancements. Results also include micro-CT analysis of the laboratory scale coupon to study the effect of microstructure imperfections response. A finite element (FE) model is generated directly from micro-CT data using the software, Simpleware [1]. A three-scale modeling strategy is adopted, where the meso-scale representative volume elements (RVEs) are modeled explicitly in the failure prone gage-area to consider the tow architecture and a 2-layer concentric cylinder (2CYL) [2,3] micromechanics model is used within the fiber tows to consider the fiber/matrix scale and the pre-peak nonlinearity, as caused by matrix microdamage. The analytical subscale model results in a computationally efficient framework for PDA of 3DWTCs.