Closing the Gap between Process- and Crash Simulation for Composite Materials

The usage of fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) becomes more and more important in the automotive industry and therefore, the requirements for accurate crash analysis results for such materials increase. As already known from sheet metal forming, process simulations are performed to predict fiber orientations for all kinds of short, long or endless fiber reinforced parts, even though most of the available software tools only use geometrical approximations. On the example of carbon reinforced braided tubes, a mapping tool will be introduced which is able to transfer fiber orientations as well as initial stresses and strains gained from braiding simulations using a high resolution beam mesh onto a coarse crash mesh. The mapping results will be compared with CT–scans taken from such tubes to confirm their accuracy. In the near future, the developed mapping algorithm shall support all kinds of process simulations such as draping or weaving for different element types as well as for different composite materials.