The application of the plate twist test method to 3D-woven textile composites was investigated using both numerical analyses of the test set-up as well as experimental results. Comparisons with the widely used V-notched beam shear and 10°-off-axis tension tests are introduced in an attempt to identify the true in-plane shear response. The results of this study demonstrate that with careful specimen preparation and an adequate test fixture precise in-plane shear modulus data can be obtained. Moreover, for 3D-woven textile composites with their large unit cells the plate twist test appears to be superior in revealing the “true” in-plane shear behaviour.
The high degree of heterogeneity in fabric composite materials is identified as a major problem in their structural analysis. A procedure is proposed to represent the material stiffness variation as a function of the spatial coordinates by using splines. The stiffness variations are exemplified using a plain weave composite. The role of this stiffness function is to facilitate the calculation of the averaged material stiffness tensor for arbitrary domains in the form of finite elements. Once this exercise has been completed for a meshed part, a finite element analysis can be performed in order to obtain information on a local level. The facility with which the averaged material stiffness tensor over an element can be calculated is not only important in terms of underpinning mesh refinement and adaptive meshing, but, more importantly, to conduct a more correct and precise, i.e. material adaptive, stress analysis.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.