Braiding

Modeling of Braided Tube Deformation

Braided structures are widely used in aerospace, automotive, biomedical and recreational sports applications. A 2D braided fabric structure resembles a hybrid of weaving and filament winding, which gives the braided structure unique features. In this project, 2-D braided structures are manufactured using fibers of carbon, glass, nylon and etc. An analytical model is proposed, and is used to predict and/or control the braided structures. Tensile and impact tests are used to characterize the mechanical properties of the braided structures. Coating of the braided structures with various resins is also investigated.

Braided Glass Fibers	Braided glass tubes coated with latex rubber

64 Bobins Braider

Artificial Blood Vessel

ACTMRL is working in collaboration with the Biomedical Engineering Department at Boston University in order to try to find a way to build and manufacture a scaffold that will promote cell interaction in order to come up with an artificial blood vessel that the human body will accept.  Initially this is being accomplished by braiding a nylon yarn onto a mandrel that is approx 8mm in diameter and then embedding the yarns into a polymer with a high elasticity.  The polymer material will then be used as scaffolding for the cells and the yarns will be used for structural reinforcement .

3D Braiding

The 3D Cartesian braiding process is a unique textile process capable of producing required three-dimensional fiber architecture, known as “Preform”. The preform is then impregnated with matrix material and consolidated to produce the final composite part. A distinct feature of the 3D Cartesian braiding process is its ability to braid a wide range of complex geometric shapes with tailored fiber architecture. This research involves development of a computer simulation of the general Cartesian braiding process. The simulation will generate information for fiber architecture based on Cartesian movement of yarn carriers on the machine bed. The information will be modified in an attempt to capture realistic fiber architecture topology. The simulation will also facilitate identification of yarn groups and individual fiber paths within the architecture. In addition, base cells (base topological units) of the fiber architecture will be identified and the topological information will be modified for easy use in standard solid modeling software.

3D Braiding	Base Cell