Numerical simulation of three-point bending deformation for 3D woven preforms based on the virtual yarn modeling strategy

SiC fiber reinforced ceramic matrix composites are widely used in the aerospace field for their good mechanical properties at high temperature. Deformation of the fiber preforms is however inevitable in the manufacturing process of complex-shaped composite components. The bending behavior plays a crucial role in determining of the preform geometries. This paper proposes a novel modeling strategy to generate yarn structures and simulate bending deformation of SiC fiber 3D woven preforms. Low bending stiffness of the yarn is decoupled from high tension stiffness through the shell/truss hybrid meshes, and the bending stiffness is calibrated by cantilever bending test of SiC fiber yarns. The bending deformation and load–deflection response of SiC fiber 3D woven preform is well predicted using this modeling method. Microstructure deformations including the variations of weft yarn arrangement, and warp yarn path are quantitatively analyzed by Euclidean distance-based metric analysis. The simulation results are verified by three-point bending test of the preform specimen and the Micro-CT scanning of the deformed preform sample. This work provides a yarn-level modeling method which can be widely applied on other textile preforms. The virtual yarn modeling strategy is more efficient than the fiber-level approaches, thus has advantage on simulations of large-sized preforms.