MOULDABILITY OF ANGLE INTERLOCK FABRICS

Angle interlock structures, also named warp interlock, can be widely used in many composite parts. They can be considered as a 3D multi-layer fabric linked together only with some warp yarns considered as pile yarns like in the velvet structure. Different studies have been performed to demonstrate their properties as the elastic behaviour [1 ] and the mouldability capacity [2]. This paper tends to better understand the mouldability aspect of an angle interlock structure. A geometrical approach has been applied to understand the different step of the global structure deformation including the filaments distribution inside the yarn and the final shape of yarns. It can be highlight that the inter ply slip and rotation of layers of the 3D fabrics encourage widely the mould property and homogeneous distribution of yarns fitting high bent curves.