Simulation of Forming and Wrinkling of Textile Composite Reinforcements

Because of the very weak textile bending stiffness, wrinkles are frequent during composite reinforcement forming. The simulation of the shape of these wrinkles during the forming process permits to verify there is no wrinkle in the useful part of the preform. In this paper the role of tensions, in-plane shear and bending rigidities in wrinkling development are analyzed. In-plane shear plays a main role for onset of wrinkles in double-curved shape forming but wrinkling is a global phenomenon depending on all strains and stiffnesses and on boundary conditions. The bending stiffness mainly determines the shape of the wrinkles and a membrane approach it is not sufficient to simulate wrinkles.