Analysis of three-dimensional woven composites - Texas A&M University (TAMU) Scholar

2017 International Committee on Composite Materials. All rights reserved. Three finite element meshes with increasing refinement, ranging from 62k to 2 million nodes, were created for a 3D orthogonally interlocked composite textile based on geometry generated by VTMS. Each mesh was subjected to uniaxial extension in the plane of the textile, and the stresses predicted by each of the three meshes were used to understand the convergence and stress distributions within each constituent. The coarse model predicted volume average stresses within 22% of those predicted by the refined model, while the model with a medium refinement predicted values within 7%. The most severe stress component within each type of tow was investigated. The transverse normal stress yMy in the y-direction tows was the most severe, which indicates that matrix cracking within the y-direction tows perpendicular to the applied load is most likely to occur before failure in other tows. For the severe stress components, the maximum stress in the material increased with increasing mesh refinement. The models seemed to be converging, but it is unclear if even the refined model reached an acceptable level of convergence. However, even if convergence is achieved, the very small volumes of material at high stress levels might require consideration of the heterogeneous microstructure in order to accurately predict the stresses and initiation of damage in critical regions.

Analysis of three-dimensional woven composites Conference Paper