FEM modeling of multilayered textile composites based on shell elements

The paper presents a shell element based unit cell approach for numerical homogenization of fiber reinforced textile laminates. The modeling strategy is set up within the framework of the Finite Element Method. Multilayer laminates comprising equal weaves are considered and the constituents, i.e. the tows as well as the unreinforced matrix pockets are discretized by shell elements only which are coupled appropriately. A study on the effective extensional laminate-shell stiffnesses is presented, the results are discussed, and are compared to approaches found in the literature. Additionally, geometrically nonlinear simulations are conducted and the results are compared with experimental tests from literature.