Meso-scale damage analysis of three-dimensional textile stitched composite subjected to compression loading

This article deals with damage simulations of three-dimensional (3D) textile stitched composites under compression loading at meso-scale. The 3D fabric geometry is created by experimental geometry measurements based on textile fiber microscopic images. At first, if a meso-scale of 3D unit-cell of the stitched composite is drawn in Catia software, then the model is imported into Abaqus finite element (FE) software. In addition, a Fortran code is prepared and linked to the Abaqus FE software for computing the stitched composite's mechanical coefficient. Finally, a user-defined subroutine in the finite element implements the damage model to anticipate the stitched composite's damage initiation and growth. The results of FE modeling show good agreement with the experimental results. This research could contribute the investigation of the integrity and damage tolerance of 3D-stitched composites for aerospace structures.