International Polymer Processing, Vol.33, No.4, 543-552, 2018
Numerical Investigations of Fiber Orientation Models for Injection Molded Long Fiber Composites
Understanding the effect of fiber orientation on mechanical properties is a primary consideration for long fiber-reinforced thermoplastics in automotive applications. In injection-molded parts, the classical Folgar-Tucker model has been used to predict the shell-core structure of short fiber orientation patterns. However, this model results in a thinner core region for long fiber composites. Recently, the RSC (Reduced Strain Closure), ARD (Anisotropic Rotary Diffusion), and iARD-RPR (improved ARD and Retarding Principal Rate) models are potential models developed in relation to suspension rheology. In addition to improving the inaccurate predictions, a so-called inlet condition of fiber orientation set at the gate is examined in the RSC. In this approach, a significant requirement is to numerically investigate the nature of the shell-core structure, while validating a predictive difference between the orientation models via related experimental data. Dramatic changes in the orientation distribution at various filling times and mold temperatures are discussed herein.