Bending Properties of T-Shaped 3-D Integrated Woven Composites: Experiment and FEM Simulation

Three kinds differently high beam T-shaped 3-D integrated woven fabrics with the glass fiber filaments tows 600 tex as warp yarns and the basalt fiber filaments tows 2000 tex as weft yarns were fabricated on common loom by reasonable design with low cost processing. The T-shaped 3-D integrated woven composites were manufactured by VARTM molding process. Then, the bending properties of Tshaped 3-D integrated woven composites with differently high beam were tested throughout the universal testing machine with the velocity of 2 mm/min. And, the load-displacement curves, absorb energydisplacement curves and bending failure mode were obtained. Results were indicated that the 12 mm high beam of T-shaped 3-D integrated woven composite had the a maximum load and absorb energy. The bending failure modes were showed that the 0 mm high beam of T-shaped 3-D integrated woven composite was a typical bending failure mode with the compression failure in the front and tensile failure in the back, while the bending failure modes of 6 mm and 12 mm high beam of T-shaped 3-D integrated woven composite were compression failure in the front and shear failure in the back. Finally, the load-displacement curves, energy absorption-displacement curves and failure modes were acquired by FEM simulation with ABAQUS software. The good agreements of comparisons proved the validity of the FEM models.