Predicting compaction-induced deformations of meso-scale textile models efficiently

Abstract

Compaction-induced deformations affect the properties of fibre reinforced composites. In order to account for this, accurate models of the compacted textile geometry are required. This paper presents the development of an efficient simulation approach to capture the compaction-induced deformations of fibre reinforced textiles. The simulations are carried out using the Abaqus dynamic explicit solver, whereby two flat plates are used to compact the textile model mesh to the desired cavity thickness. Isotropic elastic material models are used. The transverse elastic modulus of the tows and a Poisson’s ratio are determined by matching single-tow deformation simulations to deformations obtained experimentally. The compacted unit cell geometries are verified by comparing with measurements obtained from images of compacted textile samples. Using this simplified simulation setup and material definitions enables the compacted geometry of textiles to be predicted with minimal input data that is simple to obtain.