Paper number 255

ESHELBY MODELS APPLIED TO WOVEN FABRIC COMPOSITES: A BENCHMARK STUDY

G. Huysmans, I. Verpoest, P. Van Houtte

Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
De Croylaan 2, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium

Summary

The potential of a new unified micro-mechanical model for textile composites is demonstrated using woven fabric composites as an example. The model is based on Eshelby's transformation concepts, in combination with a classical averaging scheme accounting for reinforcement interactions. To simplify the solution of the basic localisation problem, a short fibre equivalent has been used for the yarn segments in the original textile. A Mori-Tanaka scheme, being widely used for short fibre composites with moderate fibre volume fractions, has been compared with a singly embedded self-consistent method, popular in the modelling of granular materials. The present model was originally developed for textile composites with complex fibre architectures like knits, but it is shown here that the model is equally performant for other textiles. After an outline of the geometrical description of woven fabrics, the model predictions are compared with finite element, FGM and cell model predictions, and with experimental data.

Keywords

micro-mechanics, textile reinforcement, Mori-Tanaka method.