ANALYTICAL METHODS FOR TEXTILE COMPOSITES
textile composite. A similar guide for properties related to strength, ultimate failure, and
fracture toughness appears in Section 6; and for fatigue in Section 7.
The codes covered in the handbook and their capabilities in predicting stiffness
and thermal expansion are summarized in Table 5.3. The modeling approach each is
based on and a comparative assessment of their accuracy, ease of use, and calibration are
found in the remainder of Section 5.2. More complete details on the individual codes,
including lists of the input data required, are presented in Section 8. The user's guides
written by the codes' authors can be found in the appendices.
Table 5.3 Summary of Code Capabilities
Code Textile Forms 3D
Stiffness
Thermal
Expansion
Plate
Stiffness
PW
SAT5
SAT8
plain weave
5 harness satin
8 harness satin
Yes Yes
CCM-TEX 3-D Weave
2-Step and 4-step
braids
Yes
µTex-10
µTex-20
general
user defined
Yes Yes Yes
SAWC plain weave
(FE code general)
Yes
TEXCAD 2D weaves
2D braids
user defined
Yes Yes Yes
WEAVE 3D weaves Yes
BINMOD 3D weaves Yes
5.2.1 Quasi-laminar and Nonlaminar Textiles
Many of the codes recognize that the textile composites they deal with are quasi-
laminar, because the fiber architecture is either a 2D structure or a 3D structure
dominated by in-plane fibers arranged in layers (Section 2). The geometry will then be
described in a way that bears out its quasi-laminar character; and the analysis of stresses
and strains will usually include steps based on standard laminate theory. Other codes
have been designed to deal expressly with nonlaminar textiles. Their descriptions of
geometry and methods of predicting mechanical properties are necessarily quite different.
