A new constitutive model to predict effective elastic properties of plain weave fabric composites

In this study, a new constitutive model has been developed to predict the elastic behavior of plain weave textile composites, using the finite element (FE) method. The geometric conditions and basic assumptions of this model are based on the basics of a continuum theory developed for the plane curved composites. In this model, the mechanical properties of the weave region and pure matrix region is calculated separately and then imported for the FE analysis. This new constitutive model is used to implement the mechanical properties of weave region in the representative volume element (RVE). The constitutive relations are implemented as user-material subroutine code (UMAT) in ABAQUS (R) FE software. The results of FE analysis have been compared with experimental results and other data available in the literature. These comparisons confirmed the capability of the presented model for the prediction of effective elastic properties of plain weave fabric composites.