Experimental identification of a lattice model for woven fabrics: Application to electronic textile

Lattice models employing trusses and beams are suitable to investigate the mechanical behavior of woven fabrics. The discrete features of the mesostructures of woven fabrics are naturally incorporated by the discrete elements of lattice models. In this paper, a lattice model for woven materials is adopted which consists of a network of trusses in warp and weft direction, which represent the response of the yarns. Additional diagonal trusses are included that provide a resistance against relative rotation of the yarns. The parameters of these families of discrete elements can be separately identified from tensile experiments in three in-plane directions which correspond with the orientations of the discrete elements. The lattice model and the identification approach are applied to electronic textile. This is a fabric in which conductive wires are incorporated to allow the embedment of electronic components such as light-emitting diodes. The model parameters are established based on tensile tests on samples of the electronic textile. A comparison between the experimental results of an out-of-plane punch test and the simulation results shows that the lattice model and its characterization procedure are accurate until extensive biaxial tensile deformation occurs.