Multiscale Modeling of a Notched Coupon Test for Triaxially Braided Composites

Abstract

Braided composites have been widely used in aerospace and automotive structures due to their light weight and high strength. Unlike metal or laminated composite material, the complex braided structure brings a lot of challenges when conducting numerical simulation. In this paper, a finite element analysis based meso-mechanical modeling for the two dimensional triaxially braided composite was developed. This mesoscale modeling method is capable of considering the detailed braiding geometry and architecture as well as the mechanical behavior of fiber tows, matrix and the fiber tow interface. Furthermore, a multiscale model combined both macroscale and mesoscale approaches and it is realized within LS-DYNA environment through Interface_components and Interface_linking. This combined multiscale modeling approach enables the full advantage of both the macroscale and mesoscale approaches, which can describe the details of local deformation and the global overall response features of the entire structure with the minimum computational expense. The evaluation and verification of the mesoscale approach and combined multiscale modeling method is through a notched coupon tensile tests conducted by Kohlman in both axial and transverse direction. The multiscale modeling method captures the response feature accurately so it has the ability to analyze large scale structures.