Research Initiation: Investigation of the Thermomechanical Behavior of Compression Molded Fiber Reinforced Composite Parts

研究了纤维增强复合材料零件的热力学行为。本研究的目的是对压缩成型纤维增强聚合物零件的热力学行为进行建模、分析和过程仿真研究。这样的研究将增加我们对收缩、翘曲和表面波纹背后的现象和物理的理解。该项目可分为两个部分：实验部分和计算机建模部分。实验方面的研究涉及热机械材料的性能鉴定和表征。在这里，我们将研究不同类型的基质和填料对零件性能的影响。在这些研究中，将考虑不同程度的纤维取向。在项目的第二部分，将开发在成型过程中发生的热机械过程的有限元计算机模拟。该模拟将与在现实工业加工条件下成型的复杂几何形状的零件进行比较。了解塑料的热力学行为，并能够在零件实际成型之前预测填充模式，纤维方向，收缩，翘曲和表面波浪度，从而提高零件质量，并消除了在零件和模具设计的早期阶段完成的一些昂贵和耗时的任务。

The thermomechanical behavior of fiber reinforced composite parts will be investigated. The objective of the study is to conduct research in modeling, analysis and process simulation of the thermomechanical behavior of compression molded fiber reinforced polymer parts. Such a study will increase our understanding of the phenomena and the physics behind shrinkage, warpage and surface waviness of reinforced plastic parts. The project can be divided into two portions: an experimental and a computer modeling potion,. The experimental aspect of the research deals with thermomechanical material properties qualification and characterization. Here, the effect that different types of matrices and fillers have on part's properties will be studied. During these studies different degrees of fiber orientation will be considered. In the second portion of the project a finite element computer simulation of the thermomechanical processes that take place during molding will be developed. The simulation will be compared to parts of complex geometry molded under realistic industrial processing conditions. Understanding the thermomechanical behavior of plastics and being able to predict filling patterns, fiber orientation, shrinkage, warpage and surface waviness before a part is actually molded leads to higher part quality and eliminates some of the expensive and time consuming tasks done in the early stages of part and mold design.