Mechanical modeling of textile composites using fiber-reinforced voxel models

Abstract

The fiber-reinforced voxel modeling technique is proposed to analyze the stress field and predict stiffness properties of textile composites. The textile reinforcements and matrix materials are modeled by virtual fibers and 3D voxel elements separately. Then the virtual fibers are “inserted” into the background voxel elements to construct the fiber-reinforced voxel elements. Stiffness properties of each fiber-reinforced voxel element are determined using volume average method based on the volume fraction and orientation of the virtual fibers it occupies. Geometry modeling and meshing of the complex reinforcements and matrix regions are avoided. As the reinforcements are generated in quasi-fiber scale, contact interactions and compaction deformations of the yarns can be modeled with high fidelity. A composite model containing one crimped yarn is used to verify the proposed method by comparing the calculating results of the fiber-reinforced voxel and traditional meso-scale models. The effect of voxel meshing density and virtual fiber radius on the simulation accuracy is also analyzed. Mechanical modeling of a multiply plain weave composite is performed by this model. Influence of nesting and compaction of the plies on the stress field can be fully characterized.