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Abstract
The analysis of three-dimensional (3D) braided composites is more difficult due to its complex microstructure. A new type of finite element
method (FEM) is developed to predict the local stress and strength within 3D braided composites under the three-dimensional mechanical
loading. To verify the present method, the material properties predicted in this paper are compared with the previous work. By using the
model, the stress components within a unit cell are obtained and used to analyze the strength of 3D braided composites.
© 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction models are called classical models since the basic assump-
tion of the classical lamination theory is valid for every
Fiber-reinforced composites have excellent mechanical infinitesimal piece of repeating unit cell of the woven-fabric
properties, such as high specific strength, high specific stiff- region. Ma et al. [5,6] first studied the effective elastic
ness, etc. In particular, laminated composite structures have performance of 3D braided composites by using the fiber
extensively been used where the in-plane properties are im- interlock model and fiber inclination model. Whyte [7] de-
portant. However, laminated composites have relatively poor veloped the ‘fabric geometry model’ by combining textile
mechanical properties in the thickness direction and are engineering methodology with a modified laminate theory.
prone to interlaminar delamination. In an attempt to over- Wang and Wang [8] reported a mixed volume averaging
coming this difficulty, three-dimensional (3D) braided com- technique to predict the mechanical behavior of 3D braided
posites have been developing in the past two decades. These composites. Naik and others [9–11] developed an analytical
materials have better out-of-plane stiffness, strength and im- model in which the yarns of the braided fabrics are divided
pact resistance and therefore have potential applications in into slices using parallel planes perpendicular to the fabric
the aerospace, automobile and marine industries. As the ap- plane. Whitcomb and Woo [12–15] gave the stress distri-
plication of 3D braided composites is becoming wider, a lot bution of woven composites using the global/local finite
of models have been developed to analyze its mechanical element method (FEM). Tang and Postle [16] discussed
properties. Due to the complicated architecture, these anal- the nonlinear deformation of 3D braided composites by the
yses are very challenging. finite element method. Huang [17,18] analyzed the elastic
In the past, most mechanical analyses of 3D braided and inelastic behavior of fabric laminates. Recently, Zeng
composites have been focused on their effective elastic et al. [19] presented a damage model to analyze the ef-
moduli. Ishikawa and Chou [1–4] proposed three types of fective modulus of 3D braided composites with transverse
models (mosaic model, fiber-undulation model and bridg- cracking.
ing model) for the analysis of textile composites. These However, there are few literatures on the stress distribution
and strength of 3D braided composites. The main purpose
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-451-86412613; of the present work is to develop a simple and accurate
fax: +86-451-86221048. numerical model for analyzing the stress field and tensile
E-mail address: taozeng@sohu.com (T. Zeng). strength of 3D braided composites.
0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2003.09.054
T. Zeng et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A366 (2004) 144–151 145
nodal degree of freedom and the total load of the structure, [Ki ] = Wi W̄j W̃k ([B]T
respectively. The load-displacement equation of the static i=1 j=1 k=1
Matrix elements are isotropic and [DM ] denotes the ma- Table 1
terial property matrix. Although yarn elements contain fiber Materials properties
and resin, they are assumed to be homogeneous and trans- Material E11 (GPa) E22 (GPa) G12 (GPa) G23 (GPa) γ 12
versely isotropic. The corresponding material property ma- Carbon fiber 230 40 24 14.3 0.25
trix [DY ] can be written as Epoxy 3.5 0.35
[DY ] = [T ]T [DY
][T ] (6)
where [DY
] is the stiffness matrix in the material coordinate respectively. [T] is the transformation matrix. Since mixed
system elements are nonhomogeneous, the material property ma-
trix [DMix ] varies with the coordinates of Gauss intergration
[DY
] = [SY
]−1 points. If the intergration point is in the yarn volume, the
1 γ12 γ12 −1 material property matrix [DY ] is taken; otherwise the mate-
− − 0 0 0 rial property matrix [DM ] is taken.
E1 E1 E1
According to the above strategy, a Fortran computer code,
γ12 1 γ23
− − labeled BCAD, is developed for computing the stiffness,
E E2 E2
0 0 0
1 stress field and predicting the strength of 3D braided com-
γ12 γ23 1 posites.
− − 0 0 0
E1 E2 E2
=
0 1
0 0 0 0 3. Results and discussions
G23
1
0 0 0 0 0 This section will numerically calculate the stiffness prop-
G12
erties, stress distribution and strength of 3D braided com-
1 posites using BCAD program. All the analyses in the present
0 0 0 0 0
G12 study are done for 3D braided composites by the four-step
(7) 1 × 1 procedure, which consisted of 12 K T300 carbon yarns
and TDE-85 epoxy resin. The mechanical properties of fiber
Here E1 , E2 , γ12 , γ23 , G12 and G23 are Young’s moduli, and resin are given in Table 2.
Poisson’s ratio and the shear moduli of the yarn material,
respectively, and they are given as follows [21]: 3.1. Effective properties
E1 = Vf Ef 11 + (1 − Vf )Em (8a)
It is very important to get a convergent solution for the
Em present finite element method. A convergent test is carried
E2 = (8b)
1 − Vf (1 − Em /Ef 22 ) out in this paper. A unit cell is meshed by different num-
ber of elements. The calculated elastic constants of 3D car-
Gm
G23 = (8c) bon/epoxy braided composites are shown in Table 1. It can
1− Vf (1 − Gm /Gf 23 ) be found that there is nearly no obvious difference for the
Gm calculated effective elastic constants when the number of the
G12 = (8d) elements is more than 2057. Therefore, it can be concluded
1− Vf (1 − Gm /Gf 12 )
that the results are reasonable and convergent if the element
γ12 = Vf γf 12 + (1 − Vf )γm (8e) number is more than 2057.
Fig. 3 shows the variation of the predicted Young’s moduli
E2
γ23 = −1 (8f) of 3D braided composites with the braid angle. From Fig. 3
2G23 it can be seen that Young’s modulus Ez decreases monoton-
where Vf is fiber volume fraction, Ef 11 , Ef 22 , Gf 12 , Gf 23 , ically with increasing of the braid angle and has a difference
γf 12 , Em and γm are the elastic constants of fiber and rein, between the present result and one given by Chen et al. [22].
Table 2
Influence of the elements number on the calculated elastic constants of 3D carbon/epoxy braided composites (braid angle θ = 45◦ )
Sum of elements 12 96 324 1053 2057 3042 4116
However, Young’s moduli Ex and Ey almost uniform and Fig. 5 shows the variation of Possion’s ratio with the braid
are consistent with results given by Chen et al. [22]. angle. With increasing the braid angle, γyx first decreases and
Fig. 4 illustrates the variation of shear moduli with the then increases; γxz and γyz first increase and then decrease.
braid angle. From Fig. 4, it can be found that the shear
modulus Gxy increases monotonically with the increasing 3.2. Stress field
of the braid angle and Gzx , Gyz firstly increase and then
decrease. When the braid angle is equal to 45◦ , Gzx , Gyz The stress distribution of the unit cell is very important
have the maximum values. because it is used to analyze the failure of 3D braided com-
havior of materials is analyzed. Fig. 6 depicts the variation σVM = 21 [(σI − σII )2 + (σII − σIII )2 + (σIII − σI )2 ] (9)
of the stress σz on the plane z = c/4 of a unit cell in the
z-direction. It is seen that the stress σz in the yarn regions where σI , σII and σIII are the principal stresses. Fig. 7 shows
is much higher than that in the matrix region and the largest the equivalent von Mises stress in the composite unit cell.
tensile stress σz in the yarn regions gets to 239% of the Subsequently, let us consider a unit shear stress (τzx = 1)
applied stress. This indicates that the yarns in 3D braided on the composite unit cell. Fig. 8 depicts the variation of
composites share most of the tensile load. the stress component τzx on the plane z = c/4 of a unit cell.
For the isotropic matrix, it is well known that the direc- From this figure, the smaller shear stress τzx at each point
tion of principal stress or strain has no significance. The of the matrix region is predicted. On the contrary, the larger
stress field of matrix can be characterized by the von Mises shear stress τzx occurs in the yarn regions. In addition, the
equivalent von Mises stress is calculated for the unit cell.
Fig. 9 shows the locations where high equivalent stresses
Fig. 6. Prediction of σz on the plane z = c/4 of a unit cell under tensile Fig. 7. Prediction of the equivalent von Mises stress σVM on the plane
stress σzUC = 1. z = c/4 of a unit cell under tensile stress σzUC = 1.
T. Zeng et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A366 (2004) 144–151 149
Fig. 8. Prediction of τzx on the plane z = c/4 of a unit cell under shear Fig. 10. Schematic of a yarn in global and local coordinate.
stress τzxUC = 1.
Fig. 9. Prediction of the equivalent von Mises stress τzx on the plane z = c/4 of a unit cell under shear stress τzxUC = 1.
150 T. Zeng et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A366 (2004) 144–151
F1 = 21 S11t − 21 S11c
4. Conclusions
F22 = F33 = 2 S22t S22c
1
A simplified numerical model of 3D braided composites
F2 = F3 = 21 S22t − 21 S22c is presented. The unit cell is discretized into a number of
rectangular elements and this is different with conventional
F44 = 21 (S23 )2 FEM method. By using this method, the mechanical prop-
T. Zeng et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A366 (2004) 144–151 151
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