Numerical Modeling of the Tensile Response of 3D Woven Textile Composites including Microstructure Imperfections

Abstract

This paper presents results of numerical simulations on predicting the progressive damage and failure response of Z-fiber orthogonal interlock “hybrid†3D woven textile composites (H3DWTCs) for uniaxial tension test using a novel two-scale computational mechanics framework. Orthogonal woven composites display high resistance to layer delamination, as observed in conventional laminated composites. Here the term “hybrid†refers to different constituent fibers, including carbon, glass and kevlar that are infused with SC-15 matrix and integrally woven into a single preform. The H3DWTCs are made through a 3D textile weaving process. This hybridized architecture is examined at Unit Cell level to determine the progression of damage and failure under tensile loading. The pre-peak nonlinearity, as caused by matrix microdamage is modeled using N-layers concentric cylinder model (NCYL) [1,2] and the post-peak softening failure response is modeled using a mesh-objective smeared crack approach (SCA) [3,4] in a multiscale framework. A micro-CT analysis of the architecture is conducted and FE model is generated directly from Micro-CT real data using the software tool ‘Simpleware’. The numerical simulation results show the effect of microstructure imperfections on the prediction of progressive damage and failure response and are also verified with experimental results [6].