Understanding Fiber-Fiber Interaction in Fiber-Reinforced Composite Materials Processing

Faculty #72
Discipline: Technology and Engineering
Subcategory: STEM Research

Dongdong Zhang - Prairie View A&M University
Co-Author(s): Douglas E. Smith, Baylor University, Baylor, TX Clifford Abendanio and Carl Upchurch, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX

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Fiber reinforced polymer composite materials, well-known for high strength-to-weight ratio, are widely used in various industries such as aerospace and automotive fields. Fiber reinforced polymer composite products are widespread since they can be manufactured into complicated shapes with improved properties obtained by adding carbon or glass fibers into the polymer matrix. The current models widely used in commercial software (e.g. Moldflow, Autodesk, Inc.) to predict fiber orientation during the injection molding process is based on Jeffery’s pivotal work and the tensor approach. However, the current models always over-predict fiber orientation, which cannot be used to obtain the desired engineered products. Meanwhile, the current model cannot predict the deformation of long fibers, which greatly affects the properties of final products. In this poster, the physical understanding of fiber-fiber interaction is achieved. With the large-scale finite element based simulation tool, the correlation between the change of fiber orientation and fiber-fiber interaction are established. The correlation is established as the number of surrounding fibers increases and the separation between fibers’ centroids varies. The method of using closed bounded fluid domain to approximate the concentrated fiber suspension is also introduced in this poster.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): NSF Research Initiation Award #1505530.

Faculty Advisor: None Listed,