Abstract

3D fabric preforms are used as reinforcements in composite applications. 3D woven preforms have a huge demand in ballistic applications, aircraft industry, automobiles and structural reinforcements. A variety of 3D woven fabric reinforced composites and two dimensional woven fabric reinforced laminates can be found in the literature. However, the majority of the said products lack in delamination resistance and possess poor out-of-plane mechanical characteristics, due to the absence or insufficiency of through-thickness reinforcement. 3D fully interlaced preform weaving introduces a method of producing fully interlaced 3D woven fabric structures with through-thickness reinforcement, which enhances the delamination resistance as well as out-of-plane mechanical characteristics. 3D woven fabric preforms made from 3D fully interlaced preform weaving, using high-performance fiber yarns such as Dyneema, Carbon, Kevlar and Zylon, have exceptional mechanical properties with light-weight characteristics, which make them suitable candidates for high-end technical composite applications. In this work, a brief introduction is given to the history of weaving followed by an introduction to 3D woven fabrics. In the existing literature, an emphasis is given to the 3D fully interlaced preform weaving process, distinguishing it from other 3D woven fabric manufacturing methods. Subsequently, a comprehensive review is made on the existing literature on 3D fully interlaced preform weaving devices, such as primary and secondary mechanisms as well as modelling of 3D woven fabric structures produced by 3D fully interlaced preform weaving. Finally, the authors attempted to discuss the existing research gaps with potential directions for future research.

Highlights

  • History of weavingWeaving is an evolving technology used for producing fabrics through the interlacement of two perpendicular sets of yarns

  • Developments in high-performance fiber yarns and advancements in fabric manufacturing technologies have led to the production of textile structures with high strength to weight ratio, compared to traditional reinforcement materials such as steel. 3D fully interlaced preform weaving enables the production of fully interlaced 3D woven 3D fabric preforms, which can be used as reinforcements in composite applications that demand high out-of-plane mechanical properties

  • Two-dimensional woven fabric reinforced laminates and 3D woven fabric preforms used in composite applications suffer from poor delamination resistance and out-ofplane mechanical properties due to the lack of through-thickness reinforcement

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Summary

Introduction

Weaving is an evolving technology used for producing fabrics through the interlacement of two perpendicular sets of yarns. Existing 3D fully interlaced preform weaving devices With the development of the dual-directional shedding mechanism, it has become possible to interlace a multi-layer warp with a set of horizontal and vertical wefts, in the fabric-width and fabric-thickness directions, respectively. The linear–linear, linear–angular and rotating disk methods of dual-directional shedding enable the incorporation of additional non-interlacing stuffer warp ends in the longitudinal direction and it is not possible with the construction of the heald frames disclosed by Fukuta et al (1982) It will be further clarified in a later section of this paper, that the inclusion of non-interlacing stuffer warp yarns is important for improving the mechanical properties of the resultant 3D woven fabric structure. The progressive damage model would be beneficial in identifying the failure modes of 3D woven 3D fabric preforms, under different loading conditions, to assess their suitability for various applications

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