STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS TOOLS FOR VALIDATING MECHANICAL TEST METHODS AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS FOR 3-D WOVEN COMPOSITES

摘要

This paper presents a combined theoretical and experimental study of a representative 3-D woven S-2 glass fiber composite, to which several standardized mechanical test methods (in-plane tension and compression, 3-point bending and inplane shear) have been applied. The actual experimental test procedures are simulated by using 3-D Mosaic structural analysis tool, which also enables modeling test specimen at different material hierarchy levels: individual unit cell, discrete warp and fill layer laminate, and fully homogenized anisotropic body. Theoretical predictions obtained with 3-D Mosaic and Stiffness Averaging/Compliance Averaging approaches are compared with experimental data, and 3-D Mosaic results show better agreement.