Simulation of Composite Forming at Meso Scale

Abstract

The forming simulation of woven reinforcements allows accessing to information such as fibre position after forming but also deformation state as well as predicting defects such as wrinkles, yarn sliding, and fibre/yarn fracture. The proposed model consists in a mesoscopic description of the reinforcement. It is simple enough to render the simulation of the forming preform possible but describes also properly the main phenomena occurring during the forming. A geometrical model where each yarn is modelled using shell elements in contact-friction with its neighbours is proposed. A hypoelastic behaviour specific of the yarn is used. Identification and validation of the model are done using standard characterisation tests for fabrics. Forming simulations illustrate the capabilities of the proposed approach. A main interest of such modelling is the possibility for the simulation to exhibit large sliding between warp and weft yarns when the tensile loads are too important.