A general approach to simulate the mechanical behavior of textile materials
by taking into account all their constitutive elementary fibers and contacts
between them is presented in this paper. A finite element code, based on an
implicit solver, is develop to model samples of woven fabrics as assemblies of
beams submitted to large displacements and developing contactfriction
interactions between themselves. Special attention is paid to the detection and
modeling of the numerous contacts occurring in this kind of structures. Robust
models and efficient algorithms allow to consider samples made of few hundreds
of fibers. The unknown initial configuration of the woven fabric is obtained by
simulation according to the chosen weaving pattern, providing useful
informations on fibers trajectories and tows crosssections shapes. Various
loading cases can then be applied to the textile sample, in presence of an
elastic matrix, so as to identify its mechanical behavior under different
solicitations. Results of simulations performed on coated fabric samples are
given to illustrate the approach