An Approach for Predicting Fiber Orientation Distribution in Plastic Injection Molding of Composites

Aims: This paper presents an approach for predicting the fiber or ientation distribution in plastic injection composites. Methodology: By introducing fiber orientation tensor, the average distribution of fibers in the composite is acquired through injection molding simulation with Autodesk Moldflow Simulation Insight ver sion 2014 . Quantitative fiber orientation distribution along thickness at specific spot is obtained by image analysis on microscopic photos of samples. The proposed approach is demonstrated by a car instrument panel made from injection molding of thermopla stics with glass fibers. Tensile test samples are cut from the instrument panel with an angle of 0 o , 45 o , 90 o to the fiber orientation at sites where fibers are highly aligned for measuring tensile modulus. The fiber orientation distribution and its effect on the tensile modulus are investigated. Results: It is shown that the car instrument panel is heterogeneous in mechanical properties. The fibers are roughly distributed into three layers along the thickness with each layer having roughly