Influences of fibre shape on the transverse modulus of unidirectional fibre reinforced composites using finite element and machine learning methods

•Transverse modulus of unidirectional composites was found sensitive to fibre shape.•Fibre shape parameters were introduced for the transverse modulus prediction.•Machine learning models were found accurate in the transverse modulus prediction.•A new data-driven approach was established for the transverse modulus investigation.