Macromechanical modelling of woven fabrics

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on the development of a thorough method for the macromechanical analysis of fabrics. Design/methodology/approach The homogenization method was implemented for the generation of continuum equivalent model for the plain woven structure. Keystone of the method is the mesomechanical analysis of the textile unit cell for the evaluation of the apparent properties and the generation of an equivalent macromechanical model supporting the mechanical performance of the structure. The finite element method (FEM) using beam elements was applied for the mechanical analysis of the discrete model of the unit cell and the FEM using shell elements was applied for the analysis of the continuum macromechanical model. Findings The tensile, shear and bending test of the unit cell were simulated. The constitutive equations of the continuum model were formed considering equivalent performance with the discrete model. Originality/value The reliability of the equivalent model in tensile, shear (in‐plane) and bending (out‐of‐plane) deformation was achieved even for asymmetric woven structures. The low computational power demanded for the meso‐ and macro‐mechanical modelling and analysis is a beneficial feature of the proposed method.