Nonwoven materials are engineered fabrics, produced by bonding constituent fibres together by mechanical, thermal or chemical means. Such a technology has a great potential to produce material for specific purposes. It is therefore crucial to develop right products with requested properties. This requires a good understanding of the macro and micro behaviours of nonwoven products. In last 40 years, many efforts have been made by researchers to understand the performance of nonwoven materials. One of the main research challenges on the way to this understanding is to link the properties of fibres and the fabric's random fibrous microstructure to the mechanisms of overall material's deformation. The purpose of this research is to study experimentally and numerically the deformation mechanisms of a low-density thermally bonded nonwoven fabric (fibre: Polypropylene; density: 20 gsm). The study started with tensile experiments for the nonwoven material. Specimens with varying dimensions and shapes were tested to investigate the size-dependent deformation mechanisms of the material. Based on obtained results, representative dimensions for the material are determined and used in other experimental and numerical studies. Then standard tensile tests were performed coupled with image analysis. Analysis of the obtained results, allowed the tensile behaviour of the nonwoven material to be determined, the initial study of the effects of material's nonuniform microstructure was also implemented. Based on the experimental results obtained from tensile tests, continuous finite-element models were developed to simulate the material properties of the nonwoven material for its two principle directions: machine direction (MD) and cross direction (CD). Due to the continuous nature of the models, they were only used to establish the mechanical behaviour of the material by treating it as a two-component composite. The effects of bond points, which are a stiffer component within the material, were analysed. Due to the limitations of the continuous FE models, experimental studies were performed focused on the material s microstructure. The latter was detected using an x-ray Micro CT system and an ARAMIS optical strain analysis system. According to the obtained images, the nonwoven fabric is a three-component material. The effects of material's microstructure on stress/strain distributions in the deformed material were studied using advanced image analysis techniques. Based on the experimental results, a new stress calculation method was suggested to substitute the traditional approach, which is not suitable for the analysis of the low density nonwoven material. Then, the fibres orientation distribution and material properties of single fibres were measured due to their significant effects on overall mechanical properties. Finally, discontinuous finite-element models were developed accounting for on the material's three-component structure. The models emphasised the effects of the nonuniform and discontinuous microstructure of the material. Mechanical properties of fibres, the density of fibrous network, the fibres orientation distribution and the arrangement of bond points were used as input parameters for the models, representing features of the material's microstructure. With the use of the developed discontinuous models, the effects of material's microstructure on deformation mechanisms of the low-density nonwoven material were analysed.

Les travaux de recherche présentés dans ce mémoire concernent la prédiction et l’amélioration des performances des machines-outils à structure parallèle dans le but de produire des pièces conformes à la qualité requise en un temps minimal. Le problème abordé permet de déterminer l’influence de la structure sur la productivité et la qualité de la pièce usinée dans le contexte de l’Usinage à Grande Vitesse de pièces automobiles et aéronautiques. Ce travail propose alors des avancées suivant deux axes fondamentaux : - la modélisation du comportement anisotrope de la cellule d’usinage ; - la proposition de nouvelles méthodes d’adaptation du processus.Ces deux axes sont dans un premier temps abordés vis-à-vis d’un objectif d’amélioration des temps de déplacement d’outil hors matière. La méthode développée nécessite l’élaboration d’un modèle cinématique des déplacements hors matière spécifique à chaque structure de machine outil et basé sur l’utilisation d’une loi de commande articulaire. Un outil d’aide à la mise en place d’un usinage sur machine-outil à structure parallèle est ensuite proposé. Cet outil repose sur un modèle numérique de comportement cinématique utilisant une loi de commande de déplacement dans le repère lié à la pièce permettant de prédire le temps d’usinage en fonction des trajectoires. L’optimisation du processus d’usinage s’appuie également sur la prédiction de la qualité d’usinage. Pour cela, un modèle expérimental basé sur une campagne de mesures effectuée sur la machine-outil considérée a été développé. Ces approches sont appliquées à des usinages de pièces industrielles sur la machine-outil PCI Tripteor X7. Leur originalité réside dans l’amélioration des performances des machines-outils à structure parallèle à partir de l’analyse du comportement durant l’usinage et permet, par conséquent, d’étendre leur domaine d’application. / The research works presented here deal with the prediction and the performance improvement of parallel kinematic machine tools in order to produce machine parts with a specified quality level and in a minimum time. The problem treated allows determining the structure influence on the productivity and the machined part quality in the context of High Speed Machining for automotive and aeronautical parts.So, these works propose improvements along two fundamental ways : - modelling of the machine tool anisotropic behaviour ; - new methods of process adaptation. These approaches lead in a first time to a study of the time taken by the linking tool movement between cutting operations. The developed method is based on the definition of a kinematic model of linking tool movements, specific to each machine-tool and based on a command law defined in the joint workspace. A helpful resource for the setting up of machining with a parallel kinematic machine tool is then proposed. It is based on a numerical model of the kinematic behaviour using a command law of the movement defined in the programming workspace and providing a prediction of machining time. The process optimization is also based on the machining quality prediction brought by an experimental model enhanced by a measurement campaign realized on the considered machine tool. These approaches are applied to industrial parts with the PCI Tripteor X7 machine-tool. Their originality lies in the improvement of parallel kinematic machines tool performances from an analysis of the machine behaviour during the machining, and consequently allows extending their application field.