Novel method of multiaxis weaving and impact analysis of the ensuing composites

The study aims to develop a novel method of weaving multiaxis preform on conventional weaving machines and analyse impact tolerance of the ensuing composites along with development of finite element analysis model. An extra set of 200 tex carbon fibres, referred as bias fibres, were integrated into carbon fibre plain woven fabric during the weaving stage on a conventional closed reed weaving machine. This was achieved by partial carbon fibre weft insertion at regular intervals from both edges of the fabric. The multiaxis preform was used as ply on top of plain woven carbon fabric plies, each of 160 g per square meter aerial density. The carbon fibre composites were manufactured by infusing bisphenol F epoxy resin as a matrix and 4 plies of carbon fabric by hand layup method. The composites were subjected to low-velocity impact loading at 0.4 m height of 5.12 kg impactor, and force-time history was recorded by the piezoelectric transducer. A comparison of impact loading results showed that the multiaxis woven composites increase impact strength by 18.3% due to the reinforcement of bias fibre. Based on the test results, a finite element analysis model was developed in Ansys v.19 to simulate the stress distribution during impact loading of the multiaxis woven composites.