Application of Three Unit-Cells Models on Mechanical Analysis of 3D Five-Directional and Full Five-Directional Braided Composites

As new lightweight textile material, 3D five directional and full five directional braided composites (5DBC and F5DBC) have tremendous potential applications in the aerospace industry. Before they are used in primary loading-bearing structures, a rational characterization of their mechanical properties is essential. In this paper, three types of unit-cell models corresponding to the interior, surface and corner regions of 5DBC and F5DBC are proposed. By introducing the reasonable boundary conditions, the effective stiffness properties of these two materials are predicted and compared by the three unit-cells models. The detailed mechanical response characteristic of the three unit-cell models is presented and analyzed in various loading cases. Numerical results show good agreement with experiment data, thus validates the proposed simulation method. Moreover, a parametric study is carried out for analyzing the effects of braiding angle and fiber volume fraction on the elastic properties of 5DBC and F5DBC. The obtained results can help designers to optimize the braided composite structures.