Investigation of the effects of chopped carbon fiber bundle dimensions on properties of sheet molding compound using finite element method

With excellent formability and good mechanical behaviors, sheet molding compound (SMC) is thought to be a promising material in mass-produced automotive applications. That the dimensions of chopped carbon fiber (CF) bundle, i.e. thickness and width, highly affect the mechanical properties of SMC has...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chen, Yuan, Ishikawa, Takeshi, Takahashi, Atsushi, Sugiyama, Kiyoshi
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon fibers
Finite element analysis
Finite element method
Mechanical properties
Sheet molding compounds
Thickness
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Summary:With excellent formability and good mechanical behaviors, sheet molding compound (SMC) is thought to be a promising material in mass-produced automotive applications. That the dimensions of chopped carbon fiber (CF) bundle, i.e. thickness and width, highly affect the mechanical properties of SMC has been found recently. In order to reveal the relationship between the dimensions of chopped CF bundle and mechanical properties, a meso-scale finite element method (FEM) considering the actual geometric features of chopped CF bundle was used in this study. The effects of the thickness and the width of chopped CF bundle on tensile and flexural properties were investigated numerically. Consistent with the experimental results, the numerical results showed that SMC with thinner or narrower CF bundles presented better mechanical performances. The numerical visualization analysis suggested that the thin and/or narrow bundles in SMC tended to build entangled 3-dimensional structures during press process which led to good mechanical properties.
ISSN:0094-243X
1551-7616
DOI:10.1063/5.0168185