Abstract
An accurate yet easy to use methodology for determining the effective mechanical properties of woven fabric reinforced composites is presented. The approach involves generating a representative unit cell geometry based on randomly selected 2D orthogonal slices from a 3D X-ray micro-tomographic scan. Thereafter, the finite element mesh is generated from this geometry. Analytical and statistical micromechanics equations are then used to calculate effective input material properties for the yarn and resin regions within the FE mesh. These analytical expressions account for the effect of resin volume fraction within the yarn (due to infiltration during curing) as well as the presence of voids within the composite. The unit cell model is then used to evaluate the effective properties of the composite.
Highlights
Woven fabric reinforced composites at micro level are heterogeneous materials the modelling of structural response using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) or analytical techniques is generally carried out at ply level and requires the user to assume an effectively homogenized material with a set of effective material properties for this homogenized material
Besides the resin and fibre types and their relative volume fraction, these constants are sensitive to other factors such as weave architecture, extent of compaction, void content and extent of resin infiltration within yarn
Defining the Representative Volume Element (RVE) Woven composites are characterized by a weave pattern that repeats in-plane periodically for each lamina
Summary
Woven fabric reinforced composites at micro level are heterogeneous materials the modelling of structural response using FEA or analytical techniques is generally carried out at ply level and requires the user to assume an effectively homogenized material with a set of effective material properties for this homogenized material. In case of existing materials, the constants can be evaluated using standard ASTM tests. Performing these tests is often, time consuming, expensive, requires specialized test fixtures, and in some case suffer from poor repeatability. The reliance on testing is not practical for development of new materials or optimization of manufacturing (e.g. curing) parameters (such as temperature and pressure etc.). In these cases, ideally one needs a capability to theoretically.
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