Prediction of the elastic behaviour of hybrid and non-hybrid woven composites

A micromechanical model called MESOTEX is presented for prediction of the elastic behaviour of composites reinforced with non-hybrid weave (plain weave, satin weave and twill weave) and hybrid weave (hybrid plain weave and hybrid twill weave) fabrics. By using the classical thin laminate theory applied to each woven structure, this analytical model takes into account the strand undulations in the two directions and also integrates the geometrical and mechanical parameters of each constituent (resin, fill and warp strands). A representative volume is chosen for each woven composite and the fibre architecture is described by several functions. To determine the effectiveness of this analysis, the elastic properties predicted for each woven composite are compared with experimental results and results extracted from the literature. This correlation shows excellent agreement between measured and predicted values, with a very low calculation cost (CPU time of less than 0·01 s).