A MICROMECHANICAL MODEL OF THE TENSILE BEHAVIOR OF WOVEN FABRIC

This work takes a micromechanical approach to fabric tensile modeling. The entire uniaxial tensile stress-strain behavior of the fabric is m odeled from the constitutive yam properties (tensile, bending, flatten ing, and consolidation behavior) and the original fabric geometry. Tec hniques for measuring these yam properties are described. In most case s, there is good agreement between the theoretical and experimental re sults for several fabrics of differing weave and yam construction. Mod ified approaches are suggested for those cases where prediction of fab ric stress-strain behavior deviates from the experimental data.