A finite element approach to the modelling of fabric mechanics and its application to virtual fabric design and testing

This work presents a detailed finite element approach for textile fabrics for mechanical analysis and simulation by combining yarn properties, inter-yarn interaction and fabric structures. The fabric geometries are generated using the TexGen geometric modelling schema developed at the University of Nottingham. This geometric model of the fabric is interfaced with a mechanics modelling environment, ABAQUS, to predict its mechanical properties. The major advantages over other approaches are that all issues arising from textile mechanics modelling are considered, physically measured data are used as inputs and the traditional requirement of user intervention during model creation is removed. The developed model and its implementation are validated using the Kawabata Evaluation System for Fabrics on commercial fabrics subjected to variety of external loadings. The presented validation shows good agreement between the simulations utilising the finite element model and the experiments. The modelling approach is used as a virtual fabric design/testing system which allows designers to input yarn details and geometric fabric structures and to predict how the performance of the fabric depends on textile structures and basic material properties. The virtual testing shows that fabric mechanical performance depends in a complex way on structural parameters, geometric data and loading conditions due to the interaction between various deformation mechanisms. The virtual testing also shows that the bending and shear properties are very sensitive to the cross-sectional shape of the yarns, which need to be modelled accordingly in order to obtain good mechanical predictions.