Prediction of elastic behavior of woven fabric reinforced plastics composites using two-step homogenization

Abstract

For a preliminary design of a composite structure, the elastic properties of woven fabric composites are required which are typically measured from costly and time-consuming experiments. For this very reason, a multi-scale analysis methodology is proposed and used in this paper to numerically predict the elastic properties of woven fabric composites. The methodology is implemented in the form of a plug-in mmPy-Woven, developed using Python language, which seamlessly integrates with a commercial finite element software Abaqus/CAE. The homogenized elastic properties of yarns are estimated from a micro unit-cell made of fiber and matrix constituents. The architecture of woven fabrics is taken into account at the meso-scale along with homogenized yarn and matrix constituent properties to predict the elastic constants of woven fabric composites. The predicted elastic properties of woven fabric composites with plain-weave architecture from mmPy-Woven are then compared with the experimental results available in literature. Also, a parametric study is performed to investigate the yarn undulation effect on the material properties of plain-, twill- and satin-weave fabrics composites.