Integrated investigation of the role of 3D architecture in the mechanical behavior of knitted textiles

The mechanical behavior of 3D architectured knitted textiles is investigated experimentally and computationally. In this aspect, different imaging methods including microscopy and digital image correlation (DIC) are used to investigate the multiscale behavior of such structures. Local and global kinematics are observed in-situ as displacement is applied providing a link between behavior at the two scales. Additionally, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is used to simulate the geometrical details of the entangled yarns in the 3D models developed. Parallelized Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) conducted in high performance computing clusters and are shown to be capable of investigating the influence of local architecture at the yarn level on the global response. The effect of local contact evolution on kinematic behavior of knitted textiles is also investigated. The results obtained both computationally and experimentally were found to be in good agreement.