Numerical modelling of entangled carbon fibre material under compression

Abstract

A new entangled cross-linked material was recently developed in order to present a new core material that can resolve the drawbacks of the honeycomb. The optimization of entangled carbon fibres requires a deep understanding of the influence of the parameters of a fibre network on its macroscopic behaviour. This paper presents a 3D finite element model to investigate the compressive behaviour of this fibrous material. The current work focuses on a representative volume element (RVE) with appropriate boundary conditions and initial fibre distribution close to that of the experimental test. The morphology of the RVE is examined before loading. The simulation results show a good correlation with the experimental data in terms of stress–strain curves. The descriptors of the morphology such as the distance between contacts and fibre orientation are studied under compression loading.