Abstract
This study presents an analysis of modelling aspects on the effective composite properties of short glass fiber reinforced thermoplastics using representative volume elements (RVE). Although, many investigations were published showing effects of different modelling parameters of RVEs, we further elaborate in this contribution the parameters: influence of fiber packing, fiber shape, bonding of the fibers to the matrix, fiber length distribution and fiber orientation. The knowledge of these influences is used to determine the extent to which the increased modelling accuracy and thus the computational effort leads to an improved RVE’s forecast quality. This objective is achieved by creating and comparing different RVE models of a PBT-GF20 composite. The information required for the RVE models is obtained by experimental characterization of the PBT-GF20 and the PBT matrix material. It can be concluded based on the results of the numerical investigations in conjunction with the experimental tests of the composite that fiber packing, fiber length distribution, fiber orientation and fiber geometry are essential for a precise determination of the effective composite properties.
Highlights
The mechanical properties of the short fiber-reinforced plastics depend on a number of factors i.e. on the length and on the orientation of the fibers
The fiber package in short fiber reinforced plastics has a large influence on the resulting effective composite properties
As shown in this paper by the investigation of the influence of the fiber package, it is very significant for the effective composite stiffness of short fiber reinforced plastics
Summary
The mechanical properties of the short fiber-reinforced plastics depend on a number of factors i.e. on the length and on the orientation of the fibers. For an exact dimensioning and design of a technical lightweight application, the spatial distribution of composite properties must be known These can be calculated by different theories. From the first approaches of Reuss [1] and Voigt [2] up to the commonly two-stage homogenization method [3], the information content about the microstructure, which is included in the calculation of the effective composite properties, increases. Efforts are obvious to further increase the forecasting quality by further increasing the information content that is used to calculate the effective composite properties. In this context, the term representative volume elements (RVE) is well known. Gitman et al [6] work out the existence respectively the nonexistence of RVEs depending on the used constitutive equations as well as the influence of size and periodicity on the effective composite properties on the basis of 2
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