Predictive Engineering Tools for Injection-molded Long-Carbon-Fiber Thermoplastic Composites - FY 2014 Third Quarterly Report

Abstract

This report describes the technical progresses made during the third quarter of FY 2014: 1) Autodesk introduced the options for fiber inlet condition to the 3D solver. These options are already available in the mid-plane/dual domain solver. 2) Autodesk improved the accuracy of 3D fiber orientation calculation around the gate. 3) Autodesk received consultant services from Prof. C.L. Tucker at the University of Illinois on the implementation of the reduced order model for fiber length, and discussed with Prof. Tucker the methods to reduce memory usage. 4) PlastiComp delivered to PNNL center-gated and edge-fan-gated 20-wt% to 30-wt% LCF/PP and LCF/PA66 (7”x7”x1/8”) plaques molded by the in-line direct injection molding (D-LFT) process. 5) PlastiComp molded ASTM tensile, flexural and impact bars under the same D-LFT processing conditions used for plaques for Certification of Assessment and ascertaining the resultant mechanical properties. 6) Purdue developed a new polishing routine, utilizing the automated polishing machine, to reduce fiber damage during surface preparation. 7) Purdue used a marker-based watershed segmentation routine, in conjunction with a hysteresis thresholding technique, for fiber segmentation during fiber orientation measurement. 8) Purdue validated Purdue’s fiber orientation measurement method using the previous fiber orientation data obtained from the Leeds machine and manually measured data by the University of Illinois. 9) PNNL conducted ASMI mid-plane analyses for a 30wt% LCF/PP plaque and compared the predicted fiber orientations with the measured data provided by Purdue University at the selected locations on this plaque. 10) PNNL put together the DOE 2014 Annual Merit Review (AMR) presentation with the team and presented it at the AMR meetings on June 17, 2014. 11) PNNL built ASMI dual domain models for the Toyota complex part and commenced mold filling analyses of the complex part with different wall thicknesses in order to support part molding. 12) Toyota and Magna discussed with PNNL on tool modification for molding the complex part. Toyota sent the CAD files of the complex part to PNNL to build ASMI models of the part for mold filling analysis to provide guidance to tooling and part molding.