PREDICTION FOR ELASTIC PROPERTIESOF PLAIN WEAVE FABRIC COMPOSITES

The theoretical analysis and experimental verification aboutthe elastic properties of Plain Weave Fabric Composites( PWFC) is discussed in this article.Representative Volume Element ( RVE) method is used to predictthe elastic properties according to those of raw materials of PWFC. RVE method belongsto micromechanics,in which an elementthatcan representthe propertiesof the whole material isselected and studied,thus the contribution of fiber,resin,interface can be analyzed respectively.The simplest unit cell of PWFC is taken out as RVE in this research.A mathematics model based on RVE issetup and the yarn shape in the compositesis regarded assinusoidal.The re- lationship between micro structure and macro properties is analyzed.A predictorprogram is made for predicting quickly.The predictor software programmed with Visual Basic has some convenient fea- tures.With considering all factorsof the yarn geometric shape,the fiber volume contentand the hol- low rate,the theoretically elastic data of PWFC can be predicted.Compared experimentsare done by using lay- outand RTM processto make samples.The relatively smallerror between the experimental resultand predicted data proves the feasibility of the mathematics model and predictor method.