Post-forming Composite Morphologies: Materialization and design methods for inducing form through textile material behavior

Abstract

A textile hybrid system is based upon a structural logic that generates form in the relationship between an elastic textile surface and the bending resistance of fiber-reinforced composite material. Such structures are always discretized as the materials are born of highly specialized manufacturing processes: weaving or knitting for manufacturing textiles and pultrusion for the production of the particular fiber-reinforced composite elements typically utilized in textile hybrid structures. The research described in this paper embeds properties of both elastic textile and bending-resistant composites within a single material structure. This is accomplished through a composite forming process which utilizes pre-stressed textiles integrated with isolated regions of stiffened material. The design of material behavior is utilized in both the forming process and the implementation of the material system itself. By calibrating curing time and the influence of the pre-stressed textile, complex 3D forms are generated without the use of complex 3D formwork (preforms). The resulting material systems have an inherent textile hybrid nature while also, as composites, offer high degrees of flexure. A series of studies depict the potential in forming complex 3D surface structures, and utilizing the ductile nature as reconfigurable material systems. Previous research in textile hybrid systems utilizing CNC knitted textiles (left) and multi-scalar applications of GFRP rods and textiles (right)