B. Van Den Broucke et.al., Modelling of damage in textile reinforced composites: micro–meso approach 1 MODELLING OF DAMAGE IN TEXTILE REINFORCED COMPOSITES: MICRO–MESO APPROACH

The complex architecture of textiles used as composite reinforcement results in complex stress distributions inside the composite structure when loaded externally. The resulting local stress concentrations can cause the initiation of damage in the structure. This effect gets even more complex when uneven fibre distributions inside yarns or fibrous plies are taken into account. This paper presents a method based on finite element calculations that takes into account these effects and tries to predict the homogenised elastic behaviour of a unit cell of a textile reinforced composite, en-ables the prediction of a first failure envelope, and tries to predict the behaviour including damage. Three types of non crimp fabrics and UD-braids, an innovative textile structure, are used as validation examples. A concise overview of the method, the simulation results and their comparison with experimental data are presented