Investigation of the three-dimensional micromechanical behavior of woven-fabric composites.

A three-dimensional representative volume-element model is presented to study the micromechanical behavior of woven-fabric composites. The effects of the fiber undulation zone and the fiber braid angle on the elastic modulus of the composites are taken into account in the unit cell. Based on isostrain and isostress assumptions, a standard homogenization procedure is used to calculate the effective elastic properties of woven-fabric composites, and all the final stiffness components are expressed in an explicit form. The results obtained by the model considered agree with published experimental results very well. The relationship between the geometric parameters, such as fiber width, thickness, volume fraction, etc., and the macromechanical behavior of the composites can be obtained by this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]