Remeshing procedure for discrete membrane finite element : application to woven composite forming

International audiencePre-impregnated woven fabric is an increasingly important component as the reinforcement phase of composite materials for many mechanical structures (automotive and aerospace). Modelling woven fabrics is difficult due, in particular, to the need to simulate the response both at the scale of the entire fabric and at the meso-level, the scale of the fibre that composes the weave. Here, we present new finite element for the simulation of the 3D, pre-impregnated woven fabric preform. Continuum-level modelling technique that, through the use of an appropriate bi-component unit cell (fiber rotation quadrilateral element connected to truss elements), captures the deformation of the mesostructure of the fabric without explicitly modelling every fibre. Simulations of the experiments demonstrate that the finite elements are capable of efficiently simulating large, complex structures and forming processes