Nonwoven Structure Generator with Resolved Contact Parameters and Simulation of the Effective Tension, Compression and Bending on Large Structures
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The mechanical behavior of nonwoven structures is often simulated on 3D images derived from CT scans of materials. These are, however, expensive to be acquired and are limited in their representativeness. Stochastic geometry models can remedy this as they allow for cheap generation of artificial microstructures with appropriate boundary conditions. The material’s behavior is characterized by several statistical parameters such as volume fraction, fiber orientation, and contact between fibers. Whereas established geometry models are highly accurate regarding the former, they do not model the contact between fibers explicitly. Instead, mechanical solvers reinterpret fiber intersections or fiber sections within a certain distance as contact points. We recently developed a geometric model for fiber systems that is able to model contact between fibers explicitly [3]. Here, we present its application to a nonwoven material used in biomechanics. As soon as the structure is generated with all the junction and contact points, we apply our one-dimensional interpolation-based solvers extended to the contact properties, [1, 2], to compute the standard tests, such as tensile, bending, and compression ones. Proceeding on the one-dimensional graphs extended to the contact, allows to reduce the model, account to its real topology, and compute fast and on large geometries.
