Forming simulation of a thermoplastic commingled woven textile on a double dome

This paper presents thermoforming experiments and FE simulations of a commingled glass-PP woven composite on a double dome geometry, with the aim of assessing the correspondence of predicted and experimental shear angles. Large local deformations - especially in-plane shear, i.e. relative rotation between the two yarn families – occur when draping a textile on a three dimensional part and eventually unwanted phenomena like wrinkling or tearing may occur. The macroscopic drape behaviour of a weave is generally subdivided into: 1) The high tensile resistance along the yarn directions, expressed as non-linear stress-strain curves, and 2) The shear resistance, expressed as non-linear shear force versus shear angle curves. The constitutive model is constituted of a dedicated non-orthogonal hypo-elastic shear resistance model, previously described in [1, 2], combined with truss elements that represent the high tensile resistance along the yarn directions. This model is implemented in a user subroutine of the ABAQUS explicit FE solver. The material parameters have been identified via textile biaxial tensile tests at room temperature and bias extension tests at 200°. Thermoforming experiments are performed on a rectangular blank with the warp direction along the second symmetry plane of the tool, with a preheating temperature of 200°C, a constant mold temperature of about 70°C, and a blankholder ring. It was concluded that the shear angles were fairly well predicted for this particular case study, which could be expected in view of the fact that no wrinkles had formed during the thermoforming experiment.