MECHANICAL-PROPERTIES PREDICTION OF TEXTILE-REINFORCED COMPOSITE-MATERIALS USING A MULTISCALE ENERGETIC APPROACH

A computer aided design tool and a numerical procedure allowing the pr ediction of textile reinforced composite behaviour are presented in th is paper. Specifying a geometrical description, the software used allo ws the rebuildong of both simple or sophisticated textile structures. It also aims to become a pre-processing work for the subsequent mechan ical analysis. Fabric unit cells (fibres+matrix) are regarded as a thr ee-dimensional aggregate of subcells on which we apply a multi-scale e nergetic approach. First elements to validate the elastic prediction a re provided by results obtained on a woven fabric material. The progre ssive failure procedure is validated by comparisons between simulation and experiment on 3D braided composites. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Lt d.