1. A method of generating a model of a yarn material suitable for use in finite element analysis, the method comprising: generating a yarn model from an assembly of fibers, each fiber being represented as a uniform tubular structure with empirically-determined mechanical properties; stimulating deformations of the yarn model by applying one or more strains selected from the group consisting of stretching, compressing, twisting, and bending, and calculating resulting stresses; and homogenizing the yarn model to produce a homogeneous representation (“YMM”) of the yarn material, wherein mechanical properties of the YMM approximate those simulated in the yarn model.