Computation of elastic properties of fabrics used in composite materials

Woven fabric reinforcements are irreplaceable from the moment that heavy or complex composite structures should be manufactured, such as some pipe con nections or flanges, light panels for housing, subsea well head protection panels, etc. In this paper overall characteristics of woven fabrics are described, follo wed by the review of different micromechanical analytical approaches. Start ing with the simplest and continueing with the more complex, these models a re: the analogy with a [0 degrees/90 degrees] laminate, the series and para llel mosaic models, the 1D fiber undulation model, and the 2D series-parall el and parallel-series fiber undulation models. All these approaches are ba sed on the classical laminated plate theory. Analyzing the results of numerical applications of the models and experimen tal results, one can notice that both 2D fiber undulation models give the b est estimated values for elastic moduli. The other provide a rough estimate of moduli only.