Numerical and experimental investigation of the mechanical behaviour of monofilament technical textiles

The work presents a numerical model to evaluate the mechanical behaviour of monofilament technical textiles subject to different loading conditions. The macroscopic (or global) behaviour of the textiles is predicted by a three-dimensional finite element model including an accurate geometrical description of the filaments and their nonlinear mechanical behaviour. The Ramberg-Hosgood nonlinear constitutive behaviour is assumed fitting the experimental data of the filaments. The investigation is performed in the framework of the homogenization theory for periodic media; the macroscopic mechanical features of the monofilament textiles are obtained by numerical analyses of a representative volume (RV). Different monofilament textiles are considered. The comparison between the predicted numerical macroscopic mechanical responses and the experimental test results shows a satisfactory accuracy.