Homogenization of ultra thin woven composite structures at high curvatures

Abstract

Growing demand for ultra-thin woven composites has been identified in weight-sensitive applications, especially in space engineering applications such as self-deployable structures. They undergo extreme curvatures during folding and deployment process and hence understanding their mechanical behaviour is important for optimization of future structures. Literature on experimental studies unfolds that there is a considerable reduction in bending stiffness of these ultra-thin woven composites when subjected to curvatures. This paper presents a numerical investigation that incorporates inter-tow and inter-lamina interaction behaviour on the homogenized response of a two-ply plain woven carbon fibre composite. Two distinct models were used in the analysis with dry fibre approach and resin embedded geometry. The analysis is advanced further towards the non-linear regime to predict the response under higher curvatures. It is shown that the developed models are capable of capturing the reduction in flexural stiffness.