Analytical Solution for Predicting In-plane Elastic Shear Properties of 2D Orthogonal PWF Composites

This paper proposes a new analytical solution to predict the shear modulus of a two-dimensional (2D) plain weave fabric (PWF) composite accounting for the interaction of orthogonal interlacing strands with coupled shear deformation modes including not only relative bending but also torsion, etc. The two orthogonal yarns in a micromechanical unit cell are idealized as curved beams with a path depicted by using sinusoidal shape functions. The internal forces and macroscopic deformations carried by the yarn families, together with macroscopic shear modulus of PWFs are derived by means of a strain energy approach founded on micromechanics. Three sets of experimental data pertinent to three kinds of 2D orthogonal PWF composites have been implemented to validate the new model. The calculations from the new model are also compared with those by using two models in the earlier literature. It is shown that the experimental results correlate well with predictions from the new model.