Textile Modeling with Beams and Contact: A Biaxial Tension Study

Resumo

The mechanical response of textile composite materials depends substantially on the configuration of fibers that compose a given textile material pattern. The fibers’ configuration is, however, difficult to be predicted due to several factors such as their large deformability and nonlinear mechanical response. The large deformability of textiles results from the characteristics of these materials, in which the axial stiffness of yarns is predominant. The overall nonlinear response is a complex phenomenon that includes, but is not limited to, complex yarns’ contact interactions. As a possibility to overcome these difficulties, in this work, the textile’s mechanical behavior is modeled with beam elements and contact formulations. A geometrically-exact structural formulation that can handle large displacements and finite rotations is adopted for the beam elements. Moreover, two contact formulations including nonlinear compliance laws are employed. The former contact formulation considers surface-to-surface interaction while the latter uses a beam-to-beam smooth approach. This textile modeling strategy, including both contact formulations, is verified with biaxial tension experimental results. The advantages and disadvantages of each contact formulation when compared to the experimental results are discussed.