Fiber motion and rheology of suspensions with uniform fiber orientation

Abstract

One of the main goals in the studies of fiber suspensions is the prediction of fiber orientation in a short fiber composite part, using the processing variables, mold geometry, and material characteristics. The rheological properties of the fiber suspensions are strongly associated with the fiber orientation distribution. The understanding of the relations between the fiber structure in the suspension and its rheological properties is a key step in the design and implementation of processing operations. The fiber motion in shear flow is analyzed in this article. The study is focused on the relation between fiber orientation and rheological properties for a suspension with uniform (delta function) fiber orientation distribution in a Newtonian fluid. The study shows that the rheological properties of the suspension, measured during the start up of steady shear flow, can be used to determine the fiber orientation in the sample. The first normal stress coefficient is the property to measure in order to determine whether or not the suspension has a random fiber orientation. Any of the shear flow transient rheological properties can be used to determine the fiber initial orientation. It was found that the normal stress coefficients can show negative or positive values depending on the fiber orientation. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci B: Polym Phys 38: 1788–1799, 2000