A Finite Element Structure Generator for

Nonwoven Fibre Fabrics

Master Thesis Presentation
By
PRASAD R. SARDESHMUKH
Supervisor:Prof. Dr. rer. nat. habil. Dirk W. Schubert
Dr.-Ing. Dipl.-Math.techn. Gunnar Possart
FriedrichAlexanderUniversitt ErlangenNrnberg

Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Nonwoven Materials
Concept of the Thesis
Fabric Structure Generator
Modelling in ABAQUS
Results and Discussions
Conclusion and Outlook

1. Nonwoven Materials
Nonwovens are unique, engineered fabrics used across
a wide range of applications and products.

Motivation
Even though the nonwovens capture a huge market
worldwide, the full potential of these materials has not been
utilized yet.
It is important to understand the effect of materials
microstructure on the overall properties of nonwovens and
their deformation behaviour at microscopic and macroscopic
levels.
This will help the nonwoven industries to improve the
mechanical properties of the nonwoven, making it suitable
for more specific jobs, by optimising the respective
manufacturing processes

Microstructure of Nonwovens
Rectangular Bond Points

Elliptical Bond Points

(a) and (b ) show rectangular bond point pattern1 on a 20 gsm thermally bonded
nonwoven fabric.
(c) and (d) show elliptical bond point pattern2 on a 15 gsm polypropylene thermally
bonded nonwoven fabric.
1.
2.

Xiaonan Hou, Memis Acar, and Vadim V. Silberschmidt. Computational Materials Science, 46(3):700707, 2009. ISSN 09270256.
Karsten Leucker. Master thesis, Friedrich-Alexander-Universitt Erlangen-Nrnberg., 2015.

2. Concept of the Thesis

Matrix of calender pattern bond points
Unit
Cell

Flow chart of modelling and simulation

of nonwoven fibrous structure
ODF

Number of fibres

FSG

3D Fibrous
Structure

Modelling
&
Simulation
in ABAQUS

Layer controlling
parameters

A discontinuous finite element fabric model has been developed in ABAQUS

using a C++ program - Fabric Structure Generator (FSG).
The purpose of the FSG program is to generate a 3D fibrous structure as per the
orientation distribution function (ODF).
The fibrous structure provided by the FSG program is then simulated in ABAQUS
to study its deformation behaviour under different boundary conditions.
7

3. Fabric Structure Generator

Number of
Fibres required

Layer controlling
parameters

ODF file

-85.5 -65.5 -45.5 -25.5 -5.5 14.5 34.5 54.5 74.5

Orientation angle (degree)

14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
5.5
15.5
25.5
35.5
45.5
55.5
65.5
75.5
85.5
95.5
105.5
135.5
145.5
165.5
175.5

1.1
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0

Number of fibres

Probability

ODF Processing

Orientation angle (degree)

90 (Y)

0 (MD)

Processing
175.5
180 (X)

0 (X)

-85.5

- 90 (CD)

90 (CD)

270 (Y)

Fibre generation
90 (Y)

A
N
B

M
180 (X)

i
0 (X)

270 (Y)
10

Fabric Structure Generation Stage 1

User Input Data
Number of fibres requested by user = 150
Layer limiting factor = 10
Density factor = 15
ODF file = ODF1.txt
(25 gsm polypropylene thermally bonded
nonwoven fabric)

Stage 1
Formation of Bond points + Processing of ODF

11

Fabric Structure Generation Stage 2

Stage 2
Placing the fibres freely in the fabric layers till
Where , L C = Layer number request
L f = Layer limiting factor

L C <= L f

12

Fabric Structure Generation Stage 3

Stage 3
Density factor gets activated as

LC>Lf

Where , L C = Layer number request

L f = Layer limiting factor (10 in this case)

Before creating a new layer, the program will try

to fit the fibre 15 times in the existing layers .

13

Fabric Structure Generation Stage 4

Stage 4
The program writes all the necessary information about the fabric structure in data files
- Coordinates of the fibres
- Fibre orientation angles
- Length of the fibres
14

Fabric Structure Stage 5

The fabric structure with and without bond points is plotted via GNUPLOT.
Further the relation between number of fibres Vs fibre length and fibre length vs fibre
orientation are plotted to study the microstructure of the fabric.

15

4. Modelling in ABAQUS

A python program has been developed which guides ABAQUS to model the fabric
structure using the data files provided by the FSG program.
Manual modelling requires about 8 10 hours. Python program reduces this time to
20 seconds .
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Modelling Parameters
Material Parameters
Material

Polypropylene fibre

Material
model

Hyperelastic - Neo
Hooke model

Poisson
ratio

0.42

Initial shear
modulus

680 N/mm2

Initial bulk
modulus

4023 N/mm2

C10

340 N/mm2

D1

0.000497141 mm2/N
17

Boundary Conditions
Boundary Condition 1

Boundary Condition 2

Boundary Condition 3

18

5. Results and Discussions

ODF1, high density fabric structure

Analysis tools for studying the microstructure of the fabric structure.

Fibre length varies from 0.7 mm to 2.6 mm.
Most of the fibres are in the range of 0.7 mm to 1.4 mm length
There are no fibres in the region belonging to 20 o to 45 o, 60 o to 70 o and 160 o to 170 o.
19

Undeformed Structure
ODF1, high density fabric structure

20

Boundary Condition 1 (BC1)

ODF1, high density fabric structure
The fibres connecting the bond
points E-F carry no stress as they
are fixed using ENCASTRE
boundary condition.
The fibres connecting the bond
points D-B along the loading
direction carry higher level of
stress, due to their short fibre
length and low orientation angle
with respect to the loading
direction.
The fibres connecting the bond
points E-D, D-F, F-B and B-E have
lower
stress
concentration
(approximately 25% to 30% of
max. stress).
21

Boundary Condition 2 (BC2)

ODF1, high density fabric structure

The fibres connecting the bond points D-B experience no stress as they are at ENCASTRE
boundary condition.
As the structure is stretched, all the fibres connecting the bond-point D-F, F-B, B-E, E-D
and E-F participate in the load bearing process.
The structure has relatively uniform stress distribution as compared to deformation
observed using BC1.
22

Boundary Condition 3 (BC3)

ODF1, high density fabric structure
As the structure is stretched, the
fibres in the vertical direction
connecting the bond point D-B
start bearing load.
Later, the fibres connecting the
bond points D-F, F-B, B-E and E-D
join the load bearing process

The fibres joining the bond points

E-F are at low stress
concentration.
The strain generated is small in
horizontal direction compared to
the strain in the vertical direction.

23

FEA Result ODF1, High Density Fabric

ODF1, high density fabric structure
The fibrous model behaves stiffer
under uniaxial tension in the
horizontal direction (BC2) . This is
because of a large number of fibres
connecting the bond points D-F, F-B,
B-E, E-D and E-F participate in the
load bearing process from the start
of the deformation

Strain for BC1 = 67.6%

Strain for BC2 = 87.5%
Strain for BC3 = 128.78%

During the biaxial deformation

(BC3) the stresses developed in the
fibres joining the bond points D-B
(in vertical direction) are very high,
but the stresses in rest of the fibres
in CD are very low. Hence the
overall relative stresses in the
fibrous model during biaxial tension
is at a lower side.
24

6. Conclusion and Outlook

A novel finite element model has been developed to simulate the deformation
behaviour of the fibrous structure under uniaxial and biaxial tension.

To define the 3D microstructure of the fibrous web, a tool has been developed
using C++ programming language Fabric structure generator (FSG).

Using this tool 12 unique fibrous structures were created via 4 different ODFs and
were simulated in ABAQUS.

The fibrous models were able to successfully simulate the anisotropic deformation
behaviour of the actual nonwoven fibrous network.

Each fibrous structure showed unique deformation behaviour under different

boundary conditions.

This behaviour depends on the microstructure of the fibrous web i.e. the number
of fibres in the structure, their location and orientation in the structure, the
number of layers in the structure and the material properties of the fibres.
25

Possible Future Work

The finite element model used in the current thesis is still
in the developing stage.
Actual fibre properties Elastoplastic and viscous
behaviour can be introduced in the model.
There is a need to sudy the mesh dependency of the
fibrous structures, as it limits the maximum deformation
of the fibrous models during simulation.
FSG-program can be modified to incorporate more bond
point patterns.

26

THANK YOU !

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