Development of ABAQUS Plugin Predicting the Mechanical Behavior and Failure Modes of Weft Knitted-Reinforced Composites

The objective of this work is to create an ABAQUS plugin for predicting the failure mechanism, and mechanical characteristics of weft-knitted reinforced composites utilizing multi-scale modeling. This plugin facilitates the automatic modeling and analysis of weft-knitted reinforced composites, focusing on parameters such as stiffness, strength, and failure mechanisms. The developed plugin estimates the homogenized effective elastic properties of a user-created macro-model for a weft-knitted reinforced composite structure. The plugin correctly extracts the concepts of homogenization based on micromechanics parametric inputs of fiber and resin which are considered separately by the software’s user. Afterward, the homogenized constants of the composites are automatically applied to the macro-model to achieve the most susceptible areas for failure after the localization step. It also enables the prediction of the composite strength and the identification of the sample’s critical mesoscale regions. This paper also explains the plugin’s homogenization and localization-based approach. Prior to carrying out parametric research, the simulation findings are verified using experimental data. Furthermore, experimental instances demonstrating its implementation and validation are provided. A comparative analysis of tensile characteristics between the multi-scale finite element model and experimental results disclosed that the model exhibited an overestimation of the failure strength in the course and wale directions by approximately 13%. Furthermore, the error due to predicting the tensile modulus in both directions is less than 7%. The results obtained from the prediction of the plugin revealed the approximate locations of failures within the composite unit cell under tensile loading in both course and wale directions.