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ABSTRACT
The work reported in this section is a part of a wider modelling effort, done in
collaboration with A.E. Bogdanovich and D. Mungalov [8], which also includes
modelling of 3D woven composites, performed using MOSAIC 3D model [9].
The plain weave was made of 2275 tex PPG Hybon 2022 E-glass roving in both
warp and fill directions: 1.95 ends/cm and 1.60 picks/cm. Note the difference
between fibre amounts in warp and fill directions, which asked to alternate fabric
layer orientation in the 4-layer preform. Composite material samples were
fabricated in a vacuum bag with Dow Derakane 8084 Epoxy-Vinyl Ester resin as a
stack of four woven layers of 815 g/m2 with orientation 0°/90°/90°/0°.
a b c
Figure 1. 2D woven laminate model: (a) WiseTex model of a ply; (b) Hx field calculated in FE
overlapped with the optically registered field, applied strain <Hx>=0.1%; (c) profile of Hx along AB
FE model for unit cell of the 2D plain weave composite (Figure 1a) was built
and solved using MeshTex/SACOM software, which directly imports geometrical
model of one layer of the fabric from WiseTex. In order to mesh the unit cell,
MeshTex inserts thin (0.005 mm) layers of matrix in between the warp and fill yarns
and on the surface of the unit cell. The resulting Vf of the unit cell is hence slightly
decreased to 47.2% (52.0% in WiseTex model). The unit cell is unbalanced, hence it
is difficult to impose correct boundary conditions on the laminate model. Because
of these two factors, the following calculation route was adopted:
1. Perform FE homogenisation for a woven ply using periodic boundary
conditions in all the directions
The reinforcement (Figure 2a) is a triaxial braid made of carbon rovings (linear
density 1600 tex), areal density of 600 g/m2. The four-layer braided composite has
interlacing yarns in three directions: braiding yarns (r45q) and inlay yarns. Five
yarns (two in each biaxial direction and one inlay yarn) are interlaced at a relatively
small distance, which leads to a complex shape of the yarn mid-lines and cross
sections. The unit cell has a large open inner space, which is not occupied by the
reinforcement and which causes nesting of the layers. There is variation of fibre
volume fraction across the yarns: at the edges the fibre volume fraction is 15%
lower than in the middle zone. The composite is impregnated with epoxy matrix
(Epicote 828 LV/Epicure DX 6514, mixing ratio 100/17). The composite samples
were tested in tension in three directions (indicated in Figure 2a) with acoustic
emission (AE) registration. Typical diagrams of cumulative energy of events are
shown in Figure 2d together with diagrams of degradation of stiffness. These
diagrams are used to determine the strain corresponding to onset of damage H1 and a
second stage of the damage accumulation (called H2) as a "knee" on AE curves,
which is close to a slope change in the tensile (stiffness degradation) diagrams.
More details of the experiments can be found in [7].
Periodic boundary conditions (based on the translation symmetry of the unit cell
as a whole) are used. In order to decrease the computational efforts, following [11]
the internal symmetry of the unit cell is accounted for (Figure 2b). The yarn shapes
were adjusted to avoid interpenetration of the volumes, using “ separate and
b
d
Figure 2. 3-axial braid: (a) photo and WiseTex model; (b) transformation of the unit cell; (c) FE
mesh; (d) Normalised tangent moduli (descending curves) and cumulative acoustic emission energy
diagrams (ascending curves) for tensile tests in three material directions (MD, CD, BD)
a b
Figure 3. FE analysis of 3-axial braided composite: (a) damage initiation modelling using Puck
criterion; (b) stiffness degradation modelling
Quasi-UD hybrid woven fabric (warp: 24K carbon tows alternated with thin
polysulfone yarns; weft: the same polysulfone yarns) with the total areal weight of
226 g/m is used as the raw material. The reinforcement was composed of 28 plies
2
b c
a
Figure 4. Structurally stitched woven composite: (a) face and back side of the preform; (b)
opening inside a ply created by the structural stitching; (c) FE model: plies and the stitching yarn
The composite samples were tested in tension in 0q and 90q direction, with
registration of damage initiation and development using acoustic emission. An
important observed phenomenon was earlier initiation of damage in the stitched
samples loaded in 90q direction (Figure 5). X-ray observation has shown that this
preliminary damage starts inside the stitching yarns. The early damage onset has
been reproduced in FE simulation. Figure 4c shows the FE model, consisting of 28
layers of UD laminate (polysulfone properties are close to the epoxy, and carbon
crimp is negligible). The stitching site is representing by a resin-filled opening. The
direction of the fibres around the opening are deviated, following “ streamlines”
around the opening. The stitching yarn itself is modelled as superimposed mesh; the
shape of the stitching yarn and its compressed dimensions were measured on the
composite samples. Damage initiation is determined using Hoffmann criterion.
Figure 5 demonstrates that the FE model predicts the early onset of damage and the
location of the initial damage.
Figure 5. Damage in the structurally stitched laminate, loading in 90q direction: (a) AE
diagrams; (b) damage initiation locations, FE model (only plies are shown); (c) damage initiation
stress, MPa
The studied plain knitted fabric is knit with 0.15 mm diameter NiTi wires.
Figure 6 shows the fabric, WiseTex model and tensile diagram of the wire. Biaxial
tests were performed for two conditions: deformation in the course direction, width
fixed in the wale direction, and vice versa.
1000 Measured
Idealised
800
600
3.8
400
200
strain, %
0
1.8
0 2 4 6 8
The geometrical model of the unit cell of the fabric was first built in WeftKnit
software (part of WiseTex suite), then exported in ANSYS and meshed.
Interpenetrations of the wires were handled using contact algorithms in ANSYS.
Figure 7 shows the results of the calculations, together with configurations of the
unit cell on the different stages of deformation (note the “ locking” of the loops) and
distribution of the three phases of NiTi in the wires.
4.00E-01 0.38
D Fx ,kN
3.50E-01 0.33
FE
3.00E-01 0.28
1.50E-01
0.13
III
1.00E-01
II 0.08
B
5.00E-02
O A I
0.03
0.00E+00
-0.02 0 10 20 30 40
0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00
x ,%
Figure 7. Computed tensile diagrams (course direction) of knitted NiTi and comparison with
experiment
When compared with experiment (Figure 7), the FE simulation shows higher
stiffness of the fabric starting from about 20% of the applied strain, which is not
observed in the experiments. The transition from the low stiffness to the high
stiffness regime is defined by the locking of the loop, which depends on the initial
gap between the wires in the loop contact zone. These gaps in the real fabric have a
certain statistical distribution. The model represents the average of it. When the real
fabric is deformed, all the gaps should be transformed into the locking state before
CONCLUSION
ACKNOWLEGEMENTS
The work reported here was supported by EU funded ITOOL project, and
KULeuven PhD grant for D.Ivanov.
REFERENCES