Modeling of textile composite using analytical network-averaging and gradient damage approach

In this contribution, we present a gradient damage model for anisotropic textile reinforcements including fiber inextensibility and fiber sliding. In contrast to previous works, the gradient damage formulation stems not from a numerical regularization basis but from the thermodynamics of internal variables. It results in a nonlocal term as the internal energy of fiber bending with measurable nonlocal parameter. Furthermore, to guarantee a priori that rotations and reflections determined by orthogonal tensors among the symmetry group do not affect the response function of the anisotropic constitutive law, a novel mesoscopic kinematic measure for the representative volume element of the fabric is defined on the basis of the analytical network-averaging concept. Such kinematic measure is of crucial importance for material modeling of damage-elastoplasticity in anisotropic textile reinforcements, and allows for analytical descriptions of inter- and intra-ply sliding of fibers. A mixed finite element formulation is then presented for textile reinforcements taking into account fiber inextensibility. The predictive capability of the computational model is demonstrated by comparing with multiple experimental datasets of dry textile fabrics.