3D geometries generated from the drape of continuous aligned woven fibre reinforcements

Components made from continuous fibre composite materials are used successfully in a variety of industries and applications however one of the major limitations on the suitability of these materials is the potentially complex processes required to form the fibre reinforcement into a practically useful shape. The pin jointed net model is frequently used in the design process where it is applied to a geometry and provided the geometry is formable the output generates a unique fibre pattern. This study is based on an investigation of the simple pin jointed net model applied in reverse to generate the set of geometries that can be considered as formable from continuous aligned fibre reinforcement. Three-dimensional geometries were generated from specified fibre orientations, the intention being to investigate whether a structurally useful fibre pattern can produce a practically useful shape. A set of geometries is identified having unique drape properties. These potentially complex geometrical shapes are shown to be easily formed from fibre reinforcement types conforming to the pin jointed net model and can be repeated to form tessellated geometries with the same unique drape properties. Practical verification of the stated properties has been carried out using suggested forming techniques and applications for such shapes are identified.