Predicting the elastic moduli of three-dimensional (four-step) braided tubes using a spatial spring model

Abstract

In the past, the fiber bundles were mostly meshed for computing the mechanical properties of the unit cell in fabric composites. Consequently, not only the degrees of freedom but also the complexities in computation are increased. To improve the efficiency in analysis, in this study, a previously developed spring model was extended to predict the effective elastic moduli of three-dimensional (four-step) braided tubes. In the meanwhile, a related compression test was conducted to validate the computational results. It is shown that the results from the computation agree well with the experimental results. In addition, the effects of fabric parameters (such as surface braid angle and fiber volume fraction in a fan-shaped unit cell) on the effective elastic moduli of three-dimensional (four-step) braided tubes were also investigated.

Mechanical properties of SiC/SiC braided tubes for fuel cladding

“…11). Various efforts have been made to predict the elastic properties of biaxial and triaxial braided composites [17,18]. A finite element procedure is usually preferred for higher accuracy and is here selected to simulate the elastic response of a tubular sample under axial tensile loading.…”

The tensile behaviour of biaxial and triaxial braided fabrics

“…The braiding angle is the angle between the longitudinal direction of the braided preform and the deposited fibres. This braiding angle is a key parameter in kinematic analysis [2,8,14–20] of the process and also on its influence on the mechanical behaviour of braided composite [1,9–11,21–43]. Axial yarns could be added along the mandrel axis in this case braid is called a triaxial braid.…”

“…Due to their properties among others: high shear and torsional strength and stiffness, increased transverse moduli, transverse strength, dimensional stability and near net shape manufacturing capabilities [1,2,44], damage tolerance in static or low/high-velocity [45–49], braid reinforced composite materials have a broad range of industrial applications including mechanical applications, aerospace, defence, sport, medical and automotive [2,7,14,50–54]. Consequently a lot of work published concerning the identification of the mechanical behaviour of braided composite [9,21–25], associated with the development of mechanical models able to predict elastic behaviour and taking into account braid parameter as the braiding angle [1,10,11,26–43]. All these studies concern principally the mechanical behaviour of composites elaborated from braided reinforcement, but contrary to the behaviour of woven fabrics [55–57] the mechanical behaviour of braids is little studied.…”

Mesoscale model for elastic modulus of warp-knitted fabric-reinforced composites based on spring model

“…Tsai et al [11] presented a parallelogram spring model for predicting the effective elastic modulus of 2D braided structure composites. Huwan et al [12] generated a spatial spring model to predict the elastic moduli of 3D braided structures based on parallelogram spring model. Okabe et al [13] predicted the tensile strength of unidirectional CFRP composites using spring element model and found good agreement between theoretical and experimental tensile strength.…”