On the meso-mechanical modeling method for textile composites

Textile composites are well known for their excellent through thickness properties and impact resistance. The braided architecture produces significant difficulty on the computational simulation, especially on the modelling of the progressive damage behaviour. In this work, we present a conclusive study on the methodology of meso-mechanical model for textile composites based on previous series of studies. We introduce first the procedures for generating a representative unit cell model and its finite element mesh of a triaxially braided composite, based on the composite fiber volume ratio, specimen thickness and microscopic image analysis. Through a series of numerical studies, we highlight the importance of imposing proper boundary conditions when correlating with experimental results. The results suggest that a translational symmetrical boundary condition with sufficient number of unit cells for straight-sided coupon specimens is efficient and provides excellent accuracy on failure simulation. We also propose the potential application of meso-mechanical model on visual testing, and present preliminary results of failure modelling for notched and tube tensile specimens using meso-mechanical models. The results of this work intends to provide a benchmark example on conducting meso-mechanical modelling of textile composites.