Realistic Virtual Microstructure Generation of Textiles and Textile Composites using the Thermal Growth Method and Development of Textile Preprocessing Software

Over the course of his research, Dr. Nilakantan established himself as a leading expert in developing virtual microstructures and FEA meshes of 2D and 3D woven fabrics and textile composites. He invented the "Thermal Growth" method to generate realistic virtual composite microstructures that captured intricate facets of the material microstructure that commercial preprocessors could not capture. Dr. Nilakantan also developed numerous preprocessing software using Matlab, including the famous DYNAFAB which he commercialized, to automatically generate FEA meshes of woven fabrics and textile composites at various length scales, which he also used extensively in his own research work in composites. His portfolio of composites FEA preprocessing software included:

• DYNAFil - Generate fiber-level FEA meshes of single yarn and woven fabric models using 1D fibers (truss elements) and 3D fibers (solid elements)
• DYNAFab - Generate yarn-level FEA meshes of single-layer and multi-layer woven fabric models using 2D yarns (shell elements) and 3D yarns (solid elements)
• DYNAHEA - Generate FEA meshes of multi-scale woven fabric models based on Hybrid Element Analysis (HEA) which comprised 3D yarns (solid elements) at the impact site coupled to 2D yarns (shell elements) at near-field regions coupled to a 2D membrane (shell elements) at far-field regions in various configurations such as Center-Cross, Central-Patch, and Center-Strip.
• DYNAMold - Generate FEA meshes of prepreg chips with varying fiber bed architectures based on the Binary Model (1D tows embedded in a 3D matrix) within a compression mold fixture
• Extended pcGINA - Module to generate custom 3D weave architectures in XML format for import into pcGINA for thermoelastic analysis

Relevant Journal Publications

• Virtual microstructure generation using thermal growth: Case study of a plain-weave Kevlar fabric, Gaurav Nilakantan; Finite Elements in Analysis and Design, Vol. 147, 2018, pp. 21-33. (URL)
• Generating Virtual Specimens for Complex Non-periodic Woven Structures by Converting Machine Instructions into Topological Ordering Rules, Brian Cox; Gaurav Nilakantan; Olivier Sudre; David Marshall; Composite Structures, Vol. 141, 2016, pp. 63-78. (URL)
• Filament-level Modeling of Kevlar KM2 Yarns for Ballistic Impact Studies, Gaurav Nilakantan; Composite Structures, Vol. 104, 2013, pp. 1-13. (URL)
• On the Finite Element Analysis of Woven Fabric Impact Using Multiscale Modeling Techniques, Gaurav Nilakantan; Michael Keefe; Travis A. Bogetti; Rob Adkinson; John W. Gillespie, Jr.; International Journal of Solids and Structures, Vol. 47, Issue 17, 2010, pp. 2300-2315. (URL)
       - Cited in the SciVerse ScienceDirect Top 25 Hottest Articles
  

Relevant Conference Proceedings and Publications

• Realistic Stochastic Virtual Microstructure Generation for Woven Fabrics and Textile Composites: The Thermal Growth Approach, Gaurav Nilakantan; 15th International LS-DYNA Users Conference, Dearborn, MI, USA, June 10-12, 2018 (URL)
• Generation of Realistic Stochastic Virtual Microstructures using a Novel Thermal Growth Method for Woven Fabrics and Textile Composites, Gaurav Nilakantan; Brian Cox; Olivier Sudre; American Society for Composites 32nd Technical Conference, West Lafayette, IN, USA, October 22-25, 2017 (URL)
  

Relevant Other Publications

• Integrated Process-Property Simulation Framework for Compression Molded Discontinuous Long Fiber Composites using DYNAMold® and LS-DYNA®, FEA Information Engineering Solutions, Volume 7, Issue 9, September 2018 (URL)
• Realistic Stochastic Virtual Microstructure Generation for Woven Fabrics and Textile Composites: The Thermal Growth Approach, FEA Information Engineering Solutions, Volume 6, Issue 12, December 2017 (URL)
  
• DYNAFAB User Manual Version 1.0, Gaurav Nilakantan, Nilakantan Composites, May 2010. ISBN 978-81-910696-0-0.