Abstract
This study presents a numerical approach for compression molding of randomly-dispersed carbon-fiber-reinforced thermoplastics (CFRTPs) by using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), in which the flow behavior of the CFRTPs is assumed to be viscoelastic. The fiber orientation was analyzed by the orientation tensors with a large interaction coefficient corresponding to a fiber-network structure. The random orientation of fibers was preserved even after a great elongation because of the material nature of strong fiber-fiber interaction. Furthermore, stiffness distribution of a molded composite was predicted based on the obtained orientation tensors and the stiffness tensor of a unidirectional CFRTP. The calculated distributions of elastic moduli were almost homogeneous except for the flow tips, depending on the random orientation after molding. These predictions agreed with the experiment.
