Project: Multiscale experimental and numerical characterisation of textile reinforcements for enhanced nano-interleaved composites

2019-10-01 – 2022-09-30

Abstract

Textiles are ideally suited for technical engineering applications thanks to their unique combination of lightness, flexibility and strength. Especially, fibre reinforced composites are seeing a tremendous growth for designing light-weight structural components. The fibres, the building blocks of any textile, and their arrangement in the textile and the composite (microstructure) determine the macroscopic properties. It is thus of utmost importance that this micro-macro relation is fundamentally understood. The complexity of textiles (complex hierarchical microstructure, highly non-linear behaviour) makes this a challenging problem. By following a multiscale analysis, combining both advanced experimental and numerical techniques, starting with individual fibres and building up till complete nano-interleaved preforms, we get a fundamental understanding of the micro-macro relationships that govern the mechanical behaviour of textile materials. These insights are of crucial importance for the further development of high-end nano-enabled composites and are extendable to many other technical textile applications as well.