Effect of Unit Cell Geometry and Fiber Waviness on the Overall Mechanical Response of 3D Woven Composites

Effects of two meso-scale geometry generation approaches on finite element predictions effective elastic properties of an orthogonal 3D woven composite are studied in this paper. In particular, one model is created by simulating the weaving process in the software DFMA (Kansas State University). The second model is created by directly processing X-ray microtomography (μCT) data. Experimental measurements of transverse Young’s moduli are used to inform the accuracy of the predicted elastic results. In both cases, a unit cell with in-plane periodic boundary conditions is modeled, which has not been previously done in the case of μCT-based models. The effect of high frequency oscillations in tow element orientations imparted by a wavy centerline (artifact of μCT image processing) on the elastic properties is studied. The μCTbased model is then used to simulate tension-to-failure.