Experimental Characterization and Numerical Modeling of the Behavior of 3D Interlock Textile Composite Used for Impact Loading

Abstract

The study focuses on the development of a predictive numerical tool for the behavior of a special kind of 3-D woven composite called 3-D interlock. The woven fabric shows high performances in delamination resistance and damage tolerance because of yarns woven in the thickness-direction. Consequently, this material could be an interesting alternative of conventional laminated composites, which only have in-plane oriented fibers, for aircraft components under impact loading. This paper presents an experimental characterization campaign to understand the behavior of this material in the in-plane directions as well as in the though-thickness direction. Then suitable constitutive laws were developed to reproduce this behavior in each direction. Damage modeling including the inelastic strains were the main challenges. Developments were implemented into the finite-element software ABAQUS/Explicit using a VUMAT subroutine. Static simulations were firstly performed to recover the suitable behavior in all directions. Finally, a dynamic simulation of impact behavior was performed on the woven composite using a rigid impactor. First results demonstrate the ability of the model to correctly capture the overall behavior of the composite plate under impact loading.