Prediction of fiber orientation in the injection molding of long fiber suspensions

Abstract

AbstractThe properties of long glass fiber reinforced parts are highly dependent on the fiber orientation generated during processing. In this research, the orientation of concentrated long glass fibers generated during the filling stage of a center‐gated disk (CGD) mold was simulated. The orientation of the fibers was calculated using both the Folgar‐Tucker model and a recently developed semiflexible Bead‐Rod model. Rheologically consistent model parameters were used in these simulations, as determined from a previously proposed method, using a sliding plate rheometer and newly modified stress theory. The predicted CGD orientations were compared with experimentally measured values obtained from the parts. Both models performed very well when using model parameters consistent with the independent rheological study, and the results provide encouragement for the proposed method. Comparatively, the Folgar‐Tucker model provided slightly better orientation predictions up to 20% of the fill radius, but above 20% the Bead‐Rod model predicted better values of the orientation in both the radial and circumferential directions. The Folgar‐Tucker model, however, provided better orientation values perpendicular to the flow direction. Lastly, both models only qualitatively represented the orientation above 70% of the fill radius where frontal flow effects were suspected to be non‐negligible. The uniqueness of this research rests on a method for obtaining model parameters needed to predict fiber orientation which are independent of the experiments being simulated and a method for handling long semiflexible fiber suspensions. POLYM. COMPOS., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers