MATERIAL-SMART ANALYSIS OF TEXTILE-REINFORCED STRUCTURES

A methodology of the material-smart structural analysis proposed in th is paper links micromechanical modelling of a complex fibrous reinforc ement to a three-dimensional analysis of a structural part. The geomet ry of the reinforcing textile varies throughout the entire volume of a part, thus its stiffness characteristics are dependent on the spatial coordinates. The methodology addresses this by determining elastic pr operties of the textile composite in a local region (a 'meso-volume') through a processing science model. The 'global' structural analysis i ncorporates a variational formulation of the three-dimensional elastic ity problem for an inhomogeneous anisotropic body, a division of the b ody into meso-volumes having individual elastic properties, further pa rtition of each meso-volume into sub-elements, and application of spec ial deficient spline functions for a local approximation of displaceme nts with respect to all three coordinates. All the necessary external and internal boundary conditions can be satisfied with any prescribed accuracy in the proposed numerical procedure. Several numerical exampl es for woven and braided composite plates are considered to illustrate the applicability of the methodology and the calculational procedure.