Abstract
The overall strength of parts made from fiber-reinforced composites is directly related to the fiber length. For long fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (LFTs), longer fibers lead to better mechanical properties. During the processing of the LFT raw material, fibers provided in LFT pellets with fiber bundles coated by a thermoplastic matrix break due to high stresses, which can lead to a reduction in fiber length from the initial 10–15 mm down to 1–3 mm in the final part. To accurately predict the performance of the final part, modeling the breakage of the fibers during processing is of high importance. Even though most fiber breakage is thought to occur during the breakup of fiber bundles, the impact of dispersion of the fibers on their breakage behavior is not well understood, and modeling approaches are lacking. This study investigates the impact of fiber dispersion on fiber breakage in simple shear flow to provide groundwork for accurately modeling the breakage of fibers during plastication of LFTs. LFT material is pre-dispersed to varying extents before being sheared in a simple Couette flow with different shear rates. The resulting fiber length is measured at different times to analyze the breakage behavior of fibers depending on shear rate and pre-dispersion.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call