Characterisation of the draping behaviour of unidirectional non-crimp fabrics (UD-NCF)

Abstract Thin composites shell structures manufactured from stitched unidirectional non-crimp fabrics (UD-NCF) in a liquid composite moulding process provides high lightweight design capabilities. However, draping behaviour of UD-NCF has been investigated only sparsely, in contrast to research on woven fabrics or biaxial non-crimp fabrics. Hence, this contribution focuses on fundamental investigations of the draping behaviour of UD-NCF. Within this investigation picture frame tests and uniaxial bias extension tests are performed to examine the in-plane shear behaviour of UD-NCF. Furthermore, a new method is presented to examine ambivalent tensile behaviour of UD-NCF transverse to the carbon fibre roving orientation. In particular, the influence of thin glass fibres on transverse tensile behaviour of UF-NCFs is investigated using a new clamping mechanism in tensile testing. Finally, hemisphere tests are performed to observe the forming behaviour of UD-NCF in a realistic forming process and to evaluate the proposed material characterisation methods regarding its suitability for UD-NCFs.