Modeling of reinforcement fibers and textiles

Abstract The demand for fiber-reinforced composites (FRCs) is rising due to a high lightweight potential. The lightweight potential arises from high stiffness-to-weight ratios in comparison with other lightweight materials such as aluminum. Despite these advantages, FRCs are often not used in lightweight construction applications because of high costs, which are caused by a complex multistep manufacturing. The high manufacturing costs are often caused by many manual steps during the setup of single process steps. One way to reduce these costs lies within the usages of simulation tools to assess the manufacturing steps. However, modeling of reinforcement fibers and textiles is complicated due to the complex nature of these materials. This chapter is giving an introduction in modeling approaches of reinforcement fibers and textiles on different scales, which are typical for FRCs. Thereby, convenient modeling approaches are described for the microscale, mesoscale, and macroscale. For further understanding, examples of applications are shown and discussed.