Presented at ANTEC `95

AN EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF FIBER ORIENTATION PREDICTIONS FOR COMPRESSION MOLDED SMC PARTS

Louis G. Reifschneider and Hasan U. Akay, Technalysis, Inc., Indianapolis, IN

Giuseppe Molina and Aldo Ajmar, Centro Ricerche Fiat, Orbassano, ITALY

Introduction

Numerical simulation of the compression molding process allows designers to evaluate how the material flow in the mold will affect the mechanical integrity of the final part. When the resin is fiber reinforced, the part will exhibit orthotropic mechanical properties due to induced fiber orientation during the filling.

The objective of this study is to verify the predicted mechanical response obtained from a simulation of the mold filling and the concurrent fiber orientation. Verification of the method is made by correlating measured displacements due to an applied load to those simulated with an orthotropic stress analysis. Comparisons are also made with the simulated displacements from an isotropic stress analysis. The intent is to quantify the benefit of the orthotropic properties obtained from a fiber orientation analysis to the alternative isotropic property assumption.