Extended framework for geometric modelling of textile architectures

Three dimensional (3D) textiles are finding their way into fibre reinforced composite applications, and for good reasons; they can eliminate the hazard of delamination and enable complex reinforcement shapes. There is therefore a need for engineering methods to simulate these advanced textile structures during the product development phase. This is many times challenging since the textile architecture is truly 3D and not built by layers as in conventional laminated composites. The overall approach is similar as in a method previously presented by the authors, but some steps are changed that enable modelling of textiles containing strongly curved yarns, yet with very good geometric representation. That is essential for reliable simulations of all parts of the 3D reinforced composite materials, which could then be performed at close to authentic meso level resolution. The resulting textile geometries are very similar to the real materials they represent, both in terms of variation of yarn cross section area and shape along the length of the yarns. This is demonstrated by comparison of details between the real materials and the numerical implementations of their geometry.