A novel methodology to construct periodic multi-layer 2D woven unit cells with random nesting configurations directly from μCT-scans

Abstract This paper presents a novel methodology to derive multi-layer textile unit cells directly from μCT scans of real textile specimens. The constructed unit cells are guaranteed to be periodic and free from inter-tow penetrations. Furthermore, no assumptions with regards to the tows’ shape and spatial placement are imposed, which set the proposed technique apart from the state-of-the-art textile unit cell modelling approaches. The methodology can derive various unique unit cells with an arbitrary number of layers and nesting configurations from a given μCT-dataset, which are readily converted to finite element models that contain local information such as fibre fraction and orientation.