Automatically generated geometric descriptions of textile and composite unit cells

This paper presents an algorithm that generates geometric descriptions of unit cells of textiles and composite materials. The purpose of these geometric descriptions is to act as domains for calculations preformed at the scale of the unit cell, where the heterogeneity of the material must be considered. The algorithm defines both the volumes of the tows and the empty volumes that extend between the tows within the calculation domain, for general textiles. Resulting geometric descriptions are provided as assemblies of topologically simple volumes that encompass either part of a tow or part of an empty volume. Typical applications of the geometric definitions include the calculation of local permeability values for textile preforms and the investigation of local stress distributions in textile composites.