Modeling of internal geometry of 3D woven fabrics by computation method

Abstract This article enumerates a two-phase modeling technique to predict the properties of 3D woven structures. The first phase is devoted to the cross-section modeling of tows, the output of which is utilized in modeling of fabric internal geometry. The output of the modeling helps to predict internal geometry of various 3D constructions for design and development of textile structural composites. An analytical method for calculating the geometric description of the composite unit cell based on the summation of volumes of tows in the three principal directions is presented. The cross-sectional shape and aspect ratio of the stuffer, filler, and binder tows have been taken into consideration. The second phase of the model enables to play with yarn linear density, thread density, number of tow layers, binding structure, and packing factor of tows for predicting areal density, thickness, and volume fraction of the preform fabric before actually manufacturing it. Both the models compute the output values on MATLAB R2010b platform and it has been found that calculated values are in good agreement with measured values. Keywords: 3D woven structuresgeometrical modelingstufferfillerbinderfiber volume fraction