TRIPATHI L et al. Modelling and simualtion of compression bahaviour… TLR 3 (1) 2020 6-18.

Modelling and Simulation of Compression Behaviour of 3D

Woven Hollow Composite Structures Using FEM Analysis
Lekhani TRIPATHI, Soumya CHOWDHURY, Bijoya Kumar BEHERA*
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Department of Textile Technology, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India
*behera@textile.iitd.ac.in

Original scientific article

UDC 677-488.3:004.925.84
DOI: 10.31881/TLR.2020.03
Received 22 January 2020; Accepted 23 March 2020; Published 26 March 2020

ABSTRACT
Three-dimensional (3D) woven spacer composites have the advantage of being lightweight and strong for use
in various segments of structural engineering and automobiles due to their superior mechanical properties
than conventional counterparts. In this investigation, the influence of different cell geometries of 3D woven
spacer fabrics, namely rectangular, triangular and trapezoidal with woven cross-links, upon their mechanical
behaviours, especially compression energy, was studied through FEM (finite element method). Cell geometries
were changed into different heights and widths and evaluated through simulation and experiments. Simulation
of the structure was carried out by the Abaqus platform, and validation of the results was done for the
rectangular structure. It was found that compression energy increases with an increment in width, while initially,
it shows the tendency to increase and subsequently decrease with an increment in height for the rectangular
structure. Compression energy increases with an increase in the angle of the triangular structure; however,
it shows the opposite trend in the case of the trapezoidal structure. The outcome of the result shows good
agreement between simulation and experimentation values of more than 94% accuracy.

KEYWORDS
3D woven spacer fabric, cell geometry, lightweight composites, compression energy, simulation

INTRODUCTION

In the broad spectrum of novel engineering studies, researchers are using composites, which have become
an inevitable alternative because of their favourable properties and superior integrity over their conven-
tional counterparts. Excellent durability, high-bending stiffness, thermal insulation, the resistance of high
skin-core debonding, acoustic damping, and secure processing make sandwich structures vastly accessible
and preferable than isotropic components in varied and sophisticated industries like aerospace, locomo-
tives, automobiles, structural engineering, windmills, and marine. In composite research, a distinct inclina-
tion towards low cost ‘‘out-of-autoclave’’ manufacturing methods has recently come into trend, especially
in the aerospace and vehicle industry, for producing different components with superior structural integrity,
high energy absorption and minimal delamination, as well as exploring the potentiality of the robotic manu-
facturing processes [1–6]. These structures are becoming popular as an integrated part of the automotive
industry as it is shifting towards electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing to reduce carbon footprint from the

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environment by nulling fossil fuel consumption, where the reduction in weight of the vehicle compliments
with low engine energy consumption, desired speed per hour, larger pay loads, and sustainable economy [7].
Typical sandwich structures are made of a variety of core materials like honeycomb core, expanded poly-
meric foams, and balsa wood, which have low density and face sheets of high modulus [8]. Although those
core materials have the benefits of being lightweight and having superior damage resistance, the limited
surface area of the poorly bonded face-core interface and physical dissimilarity cause delamination inexo-
rably under external impacts [9, 10]. Sandwich composites made of fibrous preforms have a few obstacles
if they are manufactured by the stitching process. Stitching allows the sewing needle to pierce the preform
and damages the fibres in the piled fabric layers, which entangle with stitched thread. Consequently, the
resin gets drained from the rich resin areas at the resin infusion stage. However, weaving and knitting
methods can be the alternative for producing consolidated sandwich structures without damaging fibres
in stacking the fabric and compromising with a fibrous resin matrix, which may lead to delamination. These
three-dimensional (3D) sandwich structures are also known as woven/knitted spacer or hollow fabrics [8,
11–16]. Through weaving technology, near net shape preforms can be made by eliminating any joining steps.
3D woven spacer fabrics are constructed with pile yarns or fabrics, which maintain hollow space between
layers [17–19]. 3D woven spacer composites have better compression and shear features than conventional
counterparts [20, 21].
Furthermore, compression and low-velocity impact study were carried out by Vaidya et al., where it was
found that with the increment of thickness and the presence of core piles in 3D woven spacer composites,
the peak load and fracture under compression and low-velocity impact reduced respectively [22, 23]. Belin-
gardi et al. investigated that the sandwich structures which incorporate resin net walls in the foam core
can be sustained in a remarkable increment of the dynamic impact response [24, 25]. Furthermore, Torre
et al. talked about ridged cores in their research, where cores are made of the same material as the face
sheets. The channelled cores were filled with phenolic foams in the sandwich composites, which performed
exponentially well than their conventional counterparts [26]. An extensive study was carried out by several
researchers regarding the influence of the presence of corrugated cores in the sandwich structures. Jin et
al. recorded very high delamination resistance of sandwich structures, which were incorporated with ridged
cores along with face and bottom surfaces in his studies [27]. These corrugated cores enhance the mechanical
performance of spacer structures such as high resistance to bending deformation, especially over the direc-
tion of corrugation. Therefore, woven cross-links in spacer woven composites can withstand better under
bending loads than the structures connected with yarns [19, 28, 29]. Different geometrical shapes such as
triangular [30, 31], trapezoidal [19], and rectangular [32, 33] can be found in the woven spacer composites
which have core-face interfaces and are connected with woven cross-links. The structures may consist of
a single layer of the same cell or multiple layers of cells vertically [19]. However, it is necessary to study the
mechanical behaviour of different structures of the spacer composite through simulation [34].
In this research work, the compression energy of the sandwich structure with different cell geometrical
shape was predicted through simulation by using the Abaqus platform. The dimensions of cell shapes were
also varied within the shape, such as height, width, and angle, to find their effect on compression energy.
The model is validated experimentally by analysing the rectangular spacer sample with different cell struc-
tural parameters.

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EXPERIMENT

Materials and Methods

Materials
A composite sandwich structure of the rectangular shape was manufactured from 3D woven spacer fabrics
which have woven cross-links. Rectangular structures of different height and width were produced from
E-glass tow of 600 Tex. A customized weaving machine was used to produce the fabric. Epoxy (LY556) resin
and hardener Aradur HY951 were used to form the composite.

Production of spacer fabric and composite manufacturing

The primary requirement to produce the fabric is the weave design. The cross-sectional representation of the
rectangular structure is shown in figure 1. The structure has a connecting fabric layer and two skin fabrics.
The number of picks changed the cell dimensions of the fabric. EPI and PPI of the single-walled fabric was
10x10 and when the layers combined to form a double layer, then EPI becomes 20, and PPI remains the same.

Figure 1. Cross-sectional representation of a rectangular structure

Vacuum-assisted resin infusion moulding technique (VARIM) was used to make the composite structure, in
which resin impregnates the fabric. Customized wooden blocks were used to make the composites. They
were inserted inside the cavities of the fabric according to the requirement of the shape of the structure.
Teflon paper was wrapped around these wooden blocks so that during resin impregnation fabric would not
stick to the blocks. Figure 2 shows the composite structure produced in the rectangular shape.

Figure 2. Composite sample of the rectangular structure

Lateral compression test

Lateral compression testing of rectangular composite samples was carried out on a universal testing machine
(Instron 5982) shown in figure 3, according to the ASTM365 method. The speed of testing was 2 mm/min
at the quasi-static loading rate. This test method covers the determination of compressive strength and
modulus of sandwich cores. These properties are usually determined for design purposes in a direction
normal to the plane of facings as the core would be placed in structural sandwich construction.

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Figure 3. Experimentation setup for the compression test

Development of the 3D model through FEM

START

Pre-Modelling
Calculation of Required
Data

Structure Modelling
Create Coronary Sinus Conduit
Based on Data

Property
Impactor
Specifications

Step Module Assembly Module

Interaction Module Load Module

Optimization
Mesh Module
Module

Job Module

Figure 4. Steps for the modelling of the 3D hollow structure

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The compression energy of the textile preforms depends on various parameters which can be categorized as:
1. Mechanical properties of the composite (elastic modulus, shear modulus)
2. Structural properties
3. Geometry parameters
4. Structure surface condition.
Three-dimensional models of different structures were developed using Solid Works. Then this model was
imported to the Abaqus platform for the simulation of all the structures. The following physical proper-
ties like density, elastic moduli, Poisson’s ratio, and bending properties of the composite structure were
entered as input parameters. Meshing tool was used to mesh the 3D model structures. It is the process of
converting complex structures into thousands of finite elements. The boundary condition of fixed support
is to be imposed on the structure for finding out the solution of the structure, and compression energy
was calculated using the Finite Element Method (FEM). Steps for the simulation of the 3D hollow structure
on the Abaqus platform is shown in figure 4. Figure 5 has shown the stepwise development of a 3D woven
hollow composite structure and its behaviour under compression by using the Abaqus platform.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

Figure 5. Compression behaviour analysis by simulation (a) Developed 3D model with input parameters (b) Applying node
values (c) Meshing (d) Deformation of the structure under simulation

Ɛ Ɛ
Ɛ 𝑑𝑑Ɛ
Ɛ 𝑑𝑑Ɛ
∫0 ∫0 𝜎𝜎 𝜎𝜎
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Where
Where σσ =stress,
=stress,
Ɛ Ɛ
Ɛ 𝑑𝑑Ɛ
Ɛ=Ɛ= ∫0 ∫0 𝜎𝜎 𝜎𝜎 Ɛ 𝑑𝑑Ɛ
Where
Where σ =stress,
σ =stress, Ɛ=Ɛ=
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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Compressional behaviour of the rectangular structure

The compression energy was calculated from the area under the curve of stress-strain by using equation
1 until the first peak, because after the first peak the material starts to yield or break both in the case of
experiment (as shown in figure 6) and simulation.
Ɛ
Compression energy (joule,, J)
J) =∫0 𝜎𝜎(Ɛ)𝑑𝑑Ɛ Equation 1

Where σWhere σ =stress,

=stress, Ɛ= strainƐ=

Figure 6. Stress strain curve behaviour of rectangular structure determined experimentally

FEM Analysis

The 3D model developed in the Solidwork platform was imported to the Abaqus platform, as shown in
figure 7. After that, a simulation was performed, and lateral compression was applied, as shown in figure
8, to get the desired results with proper constraints and settings for the structure. In this way, simulations
of other structures, namely rectangular, trapezoidal, and triangular shape composites of different dimen-
sions, were also carried out.

Figure 7. 3D model on the Abaqus platform

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Figure 8. Simulation of rectangular composite structure

The stress strain graphs obtained from the simulation performed to calculate the compression energy of
different structures are shown in figures 9, 10 and 11 respectively.

(a) (b)

Figure 9. Rectangular structure (a) Schematic diagram (b) Stress-strain graph by simulation

(a) (b)
Figure 10. Triangular structure (a) Schematic diagram (b) Stress-strain graph by simulation

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(a) (b)
Figure 11. Trapezoidal structure (a) Schematic diagram (b) Stress-strain graph by simulation

Prediction of compression energy

Rectangular structures

In rectangular structures, width and height of the structure are varied and finally the results obtained
both from the experiment and the simulation are given in table 1 and table 2. Table 1 gives the compres-
sion energy for different widths of the composite cell at the constant height, whereas table 2 shows the
energy values for different cell heights at the constant width. Figure 12 (a) and (b) show that compression
energy increases with increase in width, while, with increase in height, energy initially increases and then
decreases. This behaviour reveals that the composite cell under compression load becomes unstable after
a certain height and then starts buckling.

Table 1. Compression energy of rectangular structures with variation in width

Length(L) Width(W) Height(H) Energy(J) Energy(J)

S. No.
(mm) (mm) (mm) (Experimentation) (Simulations)
1 51 32.5 30 1.6 1.5
2 69 44.6 30 2.5 2.5
3 76 49.5 30 4.6 4.4
4 97.5 63.8 30 5.7 5.6

Table 2. Compression energy of rectangular structures with variation in height

Width(W) Height(H) Length(L) Energy(J) Energy(J)

S. No.
(mm) (mm) (mm) (Experimentation) (Simulations)
1 50 21 74 4.6 4.5
2 50 29 76 6.1 6.0
3 50 36.5 78 3.4 3.5
4 50 47.5 78 2.0 2.0

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(a) (b)
Figure 12. Simulation energy of rectangular structure by varying (a) width (b) height

Triangular structure

In the triangular structure, compression energy was found out by simulation for various angles of the cell
structure. The results obtained from the simulation are given in table 3 for different dimensions and figure
13 shows that with increase in angle, compression energy increases.

Table 3. Compression energy of triangular structures with variation in the cell angle

Angle(θ) Simulation Energy

S No Length(L) (mm) Height(H) (mm) Angle(θ)
(degree) (J)
1 100 27 35 0.16
2 83.0 27 43 0.22
3 70 27 47 0.27

Figure 13. Simulation energy of the triangular structure by varying angle

Trapezoidal structure

In the trapezoidal structure, compression energy was found out by simulation for different cell angles. The
obtained results are given in table 4 for different dimensions. Figure 14 shows that with the increase in
angle, compression energy decreases.

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θ) L)
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Table 4. Compression energy of trapezoidal structures with variation in angle

Base(B) Height(H) Angle (θ) Length(L) Simulation Energy

S. No.
(mm) (mm) (degree) (mm) (J)
1 28.25 28 45 96 0.49
2 28.8 28 50.5 85 0.45
3 31.5 28 57 85 0.34
4 28.6 28 65 67.5 0.22

Figure 14. Simulation energy of the trapezoidal structure by varying angle

Valida�on of the simula�on results

In order to validate the simulation result, the experimentation and predicted values of compression energy
of the rectangular shaped hollow composite structure were plotted in a bar chart. Figure 15 and figure 16
show the results for different widths and heights of the rectangular cell respectively. It may be observed
from the figures that there is a good agreement between the simulation and experimentation results with
prediction accuracy of more than 94%.

Figure 15. Comparison of experimentation and simulation results for rectangular structures of different width

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Figure 16. Comparison of experimentation and simulation results for rectangular structures of different height

CONCLUSION

Compression energy for a sandwich structure is very crucial for the overall performance of the composite.
Among various mechanical parameters, compression energy shows influence over the changes of cell geom-
etries of the crosslinks in hollow structures. Therefore, for the numerical study of sandwich structures,
different geometrical cell shapes were developed on Solidworks and subsequently imported to the Abaqus
platform to predict the compression energy by FEM. The compression behaviour of hollow structures of
different cell shapes and different dimensions within the same shapes were studied, and compared with
the experimentation data of the rectangular shape for rationalizing. The results show that the compression
energy increases with an increment in the width of the rectangular cell, whereas it initially increases with
the increment of the cell height and decreases after a specified height while the cell becomes unstable as
well. In the case of a triangular structure, compression energy increases with the increase of angle. However,
in trapezoidal structures the energy decreases with the increase in angle. The consistency in trends in the
simulation and experimentation data signifies the reliability of the results obtained with a prediction accu-
racy of more than 94%.

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