Influence of in-plane bending behaviour on textile composite reinforcement forming

Abstract

The deformation of textile composite reinforcement is influenced by its fibrous composition. In-plane bending behaviour is an inherent aspect of textile reinforcement, yet it is frequently overlooked. The paper elucidates the significant influence of in-plane bending behaviour on fibre orientation during forming process and emphasizes the necessity of accounting for in-plane bending virtual work to prevent non-physical deformation mode. To this purpose in-plane bending calculation is implemented into a fibrous shell finite element by using the neighbouring elements method. Numerical spurious mode involving in-plane shear is avoided due to the new approach. Finally, the model is validated by comparing with composite reinforcement draping experiments: fibre orientations and distributions of shear angles are simulated in good agreement with experiments and give better results than the simulations neglecting the in-plane bending behaviour.