Microstructure modelling and prediction of effective elastic properties of 3D multiphase and multilayer braided composite

This paper is focused on the microstructure modelling and evaluation of effective elastic properties of three-dimensional multiphase and multilayer braided composite. Regarding the multiscale characteristics of the composite, the microstructure modelling is carried out sequentially from fibre to tow scale. The geometrical configuration of the microstructure is first analysed, and mathematical relations among different geometrical parameters are derived on each scale. Second, effective elastic properties are obtained based on the sequential homogenisation from fibre to tow scale. A strain energy based method is proposed to evaluate effective elastic properties with specific boundary conditions imposed on the microstructure. Numerical results obtained by the proposed method and the microstructure model show a good agreement with the results measured experimentally.