Numerical approach of the injection molding process of fiber-reinforced composite with considering fiber orientation

Journal Article · Thu May 15 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4873846· OSTI ID:22280283

Nguyen Thi, T. B., E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail]; Yokoyama, A., E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail] ^[1]; Ota, K., E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail]; Kodama, K., E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail]; Yamashita, K., E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail]; Isogai, Y., E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail]; Furuichi, K., E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail]; Nonomura, C., E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail], E-mail: [e-mail] ^[2]

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1. Department of Advanced Fibro-Science, Kyoto Institute of Technology (Japan)
2. Toyobo Co., LTD. Research Center (Japan)

One of the most important challenges in the injection molding process of the short-glass fiber/thermoplastic composite parts is being able to predict the fiber orientation, since it controls the mechanical and the physical properties of the final parts. Folgar and Tucker included into the Jeffery equation a diffusive type of term, which introduces a phenomenological coefficient for modeling the randomizing effect of the mechanical interactions between the fibers, to predict the fiber orientation in concentrated suspensions. Their experiments indicated that this coefficient depends on the fiber volume fraction and aspect ratio. However, a definition of the fiber interaction coefficient, which is very necessary in the fiber orientation simulations, hasn't still been proven yet. Consequently, this study proposed a developed fiber interaction model that has been introduced a fiber dynamics simulation in order to obtain a global fiber interaction coefficient. This supposed that the coefficient is a sum function of the fiber concentration, aspect ratio, and angular velocity. The proposed model was incorporated into a computer aided engineering simulation package C-Mold. Short-glass fiber/polyamide-6 composites were produced in the injection molding with the fiber weight concentration of 30 wt.%, 50 wt.%, and 70 wt.%. The physical properties of these composites were examined, and their fiber orientation distributions were measured by micro-computed-tomography equipment μ-CT. The simulation results showed a good agreement with experiment results.

• OSTI ID: 22280283
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1593, Issue 1; Conference: PPS-29: 29. international conference of the Polymer Processing Society, Nuremberg (Germany), 15-19 Jul 2013; Other Information: (c) 2014 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CONCENTRATION RATIO
FIBERGLASS
FIBERS
INTERACTIONS
MOLDING
ORIENTATION
POLYAMIDES
REINFORCED MATERIALS
THERMOPLASTICS