**Damage Prediction in Woven and Non-woven Fabric Composites**

Masoud Haghi Kashani and Abbas S. Milani

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/61511

#### **Abstract**

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2010, 65-84.

232 Non-woven Fabrics

01, 2015)

This chapter presents a step-by-step review on different damage prediction approaches for woven and non-woven fabric composites. First, the characteristics of woven and nonwoven fabrics are distinguished one from another, suggesting more complex analyses re‐ quired for non-woven fabrics. Then, the subsequent sub-sections are geared toward a comparison of different approaches utilized in predicting the mechanical behavior and damage mechanisms of these composites at various material scales including micro, meso, and macro. The merits and demerits of each approach with regard to practicality, accuracy, effectiveness, and characterization expense are discussed. Moreover, using re‐ cent experimental evidences, the chapter aims to highlight a number of inherent complex‐ ities in the interlaced architecture of woven composites, which may not be precisely taken into account by the damage models originally developed for non-woven and unidirec‐ tional composites. Finally, two illustrative examples on the effect of the aforementioned complexities on the mechanical behavior of woven composites are presented in more de‐ tail, through some recent works of the authors.

**Keywords:** Fabric reinforced composites, Damage mechanisms, Prediction models, Ad‐ vanced characterization
