Mechanics of three-dimensional braided structures for composite materials – part I: fabric structure and fibre volume fraction

This paper is the first part of a series on the mechanics of three-dimensional braided structures for composite materials which include fabric structure and fibre volume fraction models, prediction of mechanical properties, finite element analysis and simulation of deformations. In the present paper, the normalized pitch length is introduced as a key parameter of three-dimensional braided structures. It is demonstrated that the braiding angles...