Numerical characterization and simulation of the three-dimensional tubular woven fabric

Abstract

Three-dimensional tubular woven composite as a kind of special textile structural material is mainly used in oil and natural gas industry due to the advantages of the mechanical uniform circular shape and the provided properties. In order to comprehend the mechanical properties of the fabric in advance, modeling the three-dimensional tubular woven fabric is very important based on the actual weaving process parameters and specific structural data. In this paper, numerical characterization was performed and geometric model was constructed for this kind of three-dimensional tubular woven fabric. The geometric model of the 3D tubular woven fabric was established first based on the minimal repeating structural unit, and then a set of code including the positioning yarn coordinates and the topological relationship of the positioning yarn and non-positioning yarn was described. Furthermore, the three-dimensional tubular woven fabric was simulated under OpenGL platform according to the assumptions of the yarn cross-section and yarn path that was described by cubic B-spline curves. The proposed simulation method will contribute to the fabric structure simulation system used in the calculation of the fiber volume fraction, the distribution of voids and the prediction of composite mechanics.