Finite element simulation of textile materials at the fiber scale

TL;DR

This paper presents a finite element simulation method at the fiber scale for textile materials, accurately modeling fiber contacts and deformations to analyze mechanical behavior under various loadings.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive finite element approach with robust algorithms for simulating woven fabrics at the fiber level, including contact detection and initial configuration modeling.

Findings

Successfully modeled woven fabrics with hundreds of fibers

Simulated mechanical responses under different loadings

Provided insights into fiber trajectories and cross-sectional shapes

Abstract

A general approach to simulate the mechanical behavior of textile materials by taking into account all their constitutive elementary fibers and contacts between them is presented in this paper. A finite element code, based on an implicit solver, is develop to model samples of woven fabrics as assemblies of beams submitted to large displacements and developing contactfriction interactions between themselves. Special attention is paid to the detection and modeling of the numerous contacts occurring in this kind of structures. Robust models and efficient algorithms allow to consider samples made of few hundreds of fibers. The unknown initial configuration of the woven fabric is obtained by simulation according to the chosen weaving pattern, providing useful informations on fibers trajectories and tows crosssections shapes. Various loading cases can then be applied to the textile sample, in presence of an elastic matrix, so as to identify its mechanical behavior under different solicitations. Results of simulations performed on coated fabric samples are given to illustrate the approach.