Thermoforming and automated fabric placement processes show promise for reducing the time and cost for the manufacture of textile-reinforced composites. Simulating these processes can give insight into the manufacturability of the composite structure for each option and guide the design of the manufacturing process. Commonly used fishnet algorithms offer a computationally efficient method for modeling the draping of a fabric on a surface but do not consider the mechanical behavior of the material. A finite element solution for draping has the advantage of including the mechanical behavior of the textile, thereby allowing for investigating the relationship among changes in processing conditions and the resulting quality of the part. In the current research, a finite element based methodology for simulating the behavior of textile reinforced composites during the manufacturing process is presented.
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