Mathematical modelling of 3D woven fabrics for CAD/CAM software

Weaving is one of the key technologies that are used in organising unidirectional fibrous materials into 2D sheet and 3D shaped geometrical architectures for applications such as textile composites. It has been demonstrated that the conventional weaving technology has the potential to produce textile assemblies which have many different types of 3D shaped fabrics, and this approach has obvious advantages in the provision of a sizeable quantity of 3D shaped fabric and in cost reduction. However, the design of such 3D shaped woven fabrics may be complicated especially when the shape and micro structures are complex. This paper reviews the mathematical modelling of different types of 3D weaves which have been successfully used in developing CAD/CAM software for 3D fabrics. The types of weaves described here include single-layer, 3D orthogonal, 3D angle interlock, and 3D cellular. Results from different CAD programmes are also demonstrated.