Experimental and numerical investigation of shear modulus of composites reinforced with 3D orthogonal fabric

The purpose of the present research is to investigate the shear modulus of the polymer matrix composite. For this purpose, 3D orthogonal fabric was used to strengthen the composite. Threads in the woven structure produced by the orthogonal method have less wrinkling compared to other 3D fabric production methods. Composite samples in two different types, one with a high volume fraction of HVF fibers and the other with a low volume fraction of LVF fibers, were produced with two types of epoxy resin and polyester using the vacuum pump method and were subjected to torsion testing. In the next step, numerical modeling was done in Abaqus software. The results showed that the shear modulus and torsional strength of LVF composite with epoxy matrix increased by 7% and 11%, respectively. Comparison of the simulation results with the experimental method showed that the shear modulus obtained from the modeling had an error of less than 10% compared to the shear modulus of the composite, so the simulation method can be used to predict the mechanical properties of the composite.