A Physically Based Model of Fabric Drape Using Flexible Shell Theory

A shear flexible shell theory is used to predict the drape of fabrics. The fabric is considered a continuous, orthotropic medium. Finite element formulations are used to numerically solve governing equations under specific boundary conditions. Initially, the fabric is assumed to be a flat plate, which goes through large deformation during the process of draping. The load (fabric weight) is applied in steps to the model. During each step, a Newton-Raphson iteration method is used to solve nonlinear equilibrium equations under current load level. The material characteristics used in the model are Young's modulus in the warp and weft directions, shear modulus, and Poisson's ratio. Simulation of a 30 × 30 cm fabric draped over a 12 × 12 cm table is achieved in less than eight minutes of CPU time on an IBM RS 6000 workstation.