Structural model for prediction of thermo-mechanical properties of fabric sandwich composites

An applied prediction code has been developed to calculate the thermo-mechanical properties of sandwich composites utilizing common fabric configurations. A well-established unit-cell approach was employed to model the fabric layer geometry. Effective elastic properties were determined using Hashin's cylinder model, together with common coordinate transformations and volumetric averaging methods. Two-dimensional laminate theory was applied to calculate the mechanical properties of the resulting composite structure, with the code allowing for variable width and thickness geometry in the final part. A simple validation has been undertaken for three different composite samples to confirm the accuracy of the developed prediction model.