Prediction of mechanical properties of three-dimensional fabric composites reinforced by transversely isotropic carbon fibers

Abstract

Three-dimensional fabric composites have evolved as an attractive structural material for multi-directional load bearing and impact application. However, research on prediction of their behavior before being fabricated is inadequate. This article reports a two-step modeling approach for predicting the effective mechanical properties of three-dimensional fabric carbon fiber-reinforced composites. In step one, the micro-heterostructural composites were represented by microscale cylindrical, square, or hexagonal prismatic representative volume elements, containing a long carbon fiber surrounded by polymer matrix, taking into account the transversely isotropic properties of carbon fibers. The mechanical properties of each representative volume element were extracted from the modeling results of uniaxial tensile, lateral expansion, and transverse shear tests, using appropriately derived formulae, and averaged as the equivalent mechanical properties of the micro-heterostructures. In step two, a three-dimensional fabric composite unit cell was represented by a three-dimensional finite element model, taking into account the fiber orientations and fabric architecture. A three-dimensional orthogonal fabric carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy composite was selected as the case study material. The overall orthotropic mechanical properties of the composites were predicted by conducting tensile and shear tests on the unit cell. The modeling results show that the Young’s moduli in fiber oriented directions and shear moduli are significantly higher than those of the matrix. The shear moduli of shearing fiber cross-sections are even much higher than that of shearing along fiber longitudinal direction. Carbon fiber can improve structural stability by lowering the Poisson’s ratios of the composites. The modeling results were compared with and validated by the experimental tests.

Effect of reinforcement architecture on the macroscopic mechanical properties of fiberous polymer composites: A review

“… Note : {Interpretation of numbers → 10 —highly recommended; 1 —lowest recommended}. The above table of recommendation is formed by collecting information from the available literature [ 9,16,23,27,56,57 ] but a complete comparison of all the architectures in a single article is not available. Hence, the above table is an approximate projection formed by the author by keeping various factor in mind which can affect the performance of architecture. …”

A digital twin for composite parts manufacturing : Effects of defects analysis based on manufacturing data

“…Recent developments are described in [11,12,13]. It should be noted that such finite element simulation is typically very timeconsuming, while the use of a digital twin in this particular production environment typically requires response times of less than a few minutes.…”

An investigation into self-sensing property of hat-shaped 3D orthogonal woven composite under bending test

“…The micro-scale repeating unit cell (micro-RUC) method was employed to calculate the mechanical parameters of fiber/matrix in Abaqus. 31,32 In this micro-RUC model (Figure 9), the fibers were assumed to be distributed in a hexagonal array with fiber volume fraction of 50%. The calculation results showed that the impregnated fiber tows behave transversely isotropic with much higher tensile modulus along fiber direction ( E 11 = 160 GPa for CFs and E 11 = 50.1 GPa for KFs) than transversely ( E 22 = E 33 = 15 GPa for CFs and E 22 = E 33 = 13.7 GPa for KFs).…”