Experimental and numerical characterisation of fibre orientation distributions in compression moulded carbon fibre SMC

Abstract

A main challenge in design with long discontinuous fibre-based sheet moulding compound (SMC) is to understand flow-induced fibre orientation in the part. There are very few experimental methods for characterising the fibre orientation distribution in carbon fibre SMC. Consequently, even though process simulation models for predicting fibre orientation have been developed, the confidence in using these models remains low. This research aims to study the fibre orientation distribution in compression moulded carbon fibre SMC using a combined experimental and numerical approach. A recently developed micro-CT scanning-based method will be adopted to study carbon fibre SMC samples of various sizes. The data collected from the experimental study will be used to assess the predictive validity of selected commercial process simulation packages.