Inverse drape modelling-an investigation of the set of shapes that can be formed from continuous aligned woven fibre reinforcements

Components made from woven continuous fibre composite materials are used successfully in a variety of industries and applications, however, one of the major limitations on the suitability of these materials is the potentially complex processes required to form the fibre reinforcement into a practically useful shape. Predictive models based on the pin jointed net assumption are frequently used in design applications where they may be applied to a surface and provided the shape is formable the output generates a unique fibre pattern. This study is based on an investigation of the simple pin jointed net model applied in reverse to generate formable geometries. One set of shapes is identified as having unique drape properties. These potentially complex geometrical shapes are shown to be easily formed and can be repeated to form tessellated geometries. Practical verification of the stated properties has been carried out using suggested forming techniques and applications for such shapes are identified.