Predicting mechanical behaviour and damage kinetics of a 3D interlock composite materials by using a multiscale approach

International audience; The present work aims to investigate the mechanical behaviour and the damage kinetics of a3D interlock woven fabric composite, especially used for natural gas tanks dedicated to thetransportation industry. On the one hand, we aim at predicting the macroscopic coefficients ofthe stiffness matrix by homogenization multiscale approach. For this, we identified a basicunit cell which represents well the composite microstructure. On the other hand, damagemechanisms are analyzed: optical microscopy examinations on damaged specimens revealedseveral types of defects. We used the same multi-scale approach to assess the impact of thesedefects on the decrease of stiffness.