A simple mechanical model for predicting in-plane elastic moduli and coefficients of thermal expansion of composites using orthogonal 3-D textile reinforcement is proposed in the present work based on the constituent material properties. The theoretical procedure starts after determination of basic mechanical properties of unidirectional composites as the constituents of 3-D textile composites. An establishment of the model automatically leads to the approximate formulae for the prediction. The procedure is constructed by the combination of parallel and serial linkage of the UD composite and pure epoxy blocks. The predicted elastic modulus, in-plane shear modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion of Tyranno
®/epoxy 3-D composite system were compared with experimental results and numerical results obtained from homogenization finite element analysis. An agreement between them is basically excellent. A simple formula to predict elastic and thermal expansion behavior of 3-D composites is well described with some limitation.
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