Modeling of tensile and bending properties of biaxial weft knitted composites

Within the scope of experiments, the effect of aramid and glass yarns as stitch and biaxial (warp and weft) yarns in the biaxial weft knitted (BWK) composite was compared. After production of four types of composite panel using the hand lay-up method, the tensile and bending properties of the BWK composites were investigated both experimentally and numerically. The composite with the glass stitch and biaxial yarns exhibited higher tensile and bending properties than did the composite with the aramid stitch and biaxial yarns. The good agreement between the experimental results and the numerical results validated the applicability of the finite-element method for the BWK composites. The laminate beam theory was utilized as another modeling method for calculation of the bending modulus.