The mechanical reliability of an electronic textile investigated using the virtual-power-based quasicontinuum method

Abstract

The quasicontinuum (QC) method is a multiscale method for the solution of lattice models that combines coarse-grained regions and fully resolved regions with individual lattice events. QC methodologies are mainly used to reduce the computational costs of conservative atomistic lattice computations. Recently, a virtual-power-based variant has been proposed that enables its use for non-conservative lattice computations. In this contribution the virtual-power-based QC approach is adopted in combination with a recently proposed mesostructural lattice model for electronic textile in order to investigate its mechanical behaviour. The interactions of the lattice model for electronic textile are modelled elasto-plastically and hence, regular conservative QC approaches are not adequate. This article incorporates a modification of a previously defined exact summation rule for QC methods – by sampling the lattice interactions directly instead of via the lattice nodes. This leads to a significant reduction of the computational cost, whereas the accuracy of the summation rule remains unaffected. The presented methodology is used to efficiently investigate the failure envelope of an electronic textile – a woven fabric with embedded electronic components and conductive wires. The dependence of the failure envelope on the locations of the conductive wires and the stiffness of the weft yarns is investigated as well.