An improved semi-discrete approach for simulation of 2.5D woven fabric preforming

The geometry of the textile composite reinforcements plays an important role in the mechanical properties of the final composite part and resin injection of the RTM forming process. An improved semi-discrete approach is proposed for simulation of 2.5D woven fabric forming. Transverse compaction, in-plane shear and bending are further considered in this paper, the corresponding internal nodal loads of the user-defined element are derived based on the principle of virtual work and implemented in finite element (FE) software ABAQUS/Explicit with user element subroutine (VUEL). Three experiments are conducted to determine the mechanical behaviors of the fabric. A combined deformation of cylindrical bending and torsion of the fabric is experimentally and numerically studied. A satisfactory agreement is achieved between the simulated and the experimental results. Both indicate that this combined deformation can be equivalent to the sequential superposition of in-plane and bending. The mechanism of the combined deformation is also discussed.