Bean Philip, Lopez-Anido Roberto A, Vel Senthil
Advanced Structures and Composite Center, University of Maine, Orono, ME 04469, USA.
Polymers (Basel). 2022 May 4;14(9):1877. doi: 10.3390/polym14091877.
An improved simulation-based thermoforming design process based on the integration of material characterization and as-formed structural analysis is proposed. The tendency of thermoplastic composites to wrinkle during forming has made simulation critical to optimized manufacturing, but the material models required are complex and time consuming to create. A suite of experimental methods has been developed for measurement of several required properties of the molten thermoplastic composite. These methods have the potential to enhance thermoplastic composites manufacturing by simplifying and expediting the process. These material properties have been verified by application to thermomechanical forming predictions using commercial simulation software. The forming predictions showed improved agreement with experimental results compared to those using representative material properties. A tool for using thermoforming simulations to inform more accurate structural models has been tested on a simple case study, and produced results that clearly differ from those of models using idealized fiber orientations and thicknesses. This provides evidence that this type of as-formed analysis may be necessary in some cases, and may be further investigated as an open source alternative to commercial analysis software.
提出了一种基于材料特性与成型后结构分析相结合的改进型热成型模拟设计流程。热塑性复合材料在成型过程中易起皱的特性使得模拟对于优化制造至关重要，但所需的材料模型创建起来复杂且耗时。已开发出一套实验方法来测量熔融热塑性复合材料的几种所需性能。这些方法有可能通过简化和加快流程来提高热塑性复合材料的制造水平。这些材料性能已通过使用商业模拟软件应用于热机械成型预测得到验证。与使用代表性材料性能的预测相比，成型预测与实验结果的一致性有所提高。一种利用热成型模拟来生成更精确结构模型的工具已在一个简单案例研究中进行了测试，其产生的结果与使用理想化纤维取向和厚度的模型明显不同。这表明在某些情况下这种成型后分析可能是必要的，并且可作为商业分析软件的开源替代方案作进一步研究。
