Optimizing the buckling resistance of injection molding composite plates by manipulating gate locations

Abstract

In contrast to continuous-fiber-reinforced polymer (cFRP), the random distribution of fibers in short-fiber-reinforced polymer (sFRP), which depends on the manufacturing process, has a significant impact on the mechanical properties of sFRP components. In this study, an automatic joint injection-buckling analysis framework was developed that can simulate the injection process and predict the mechanical performance in sequence. This automatic analysis framework can be directly utilized to optimize the manufacturing process to improve mechanical properties. Based on this method, it is demonstrated that an sFRP plate (consisting of carbon fiber-reinforced polyphenylene sulfide) has better buckling resistance than an aluminum alloy plate with the same design weight. The buckling resistance can be further improved by manipulating the gate location in the injection molds. The optimization scheme was verified using the conventional analysis framework. Moreover, the optimization method was improved by utilizing a tensor-similarity-based algorithm, which can substantially decrease the time required to locate the optimal solution.