A Numerical Simulation Method for the One-Step Compression-Stamping Process of Continuous Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites

Abstract

Continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic (CFRTP) composites have many advantages, such as high strength, high stiffness, shorter cycle, time and enabling the part consolidation of structural components. However, the mass production of the CFRTP parts is still challenging in industry and simulations can be used to better understand internal molding mechanisms. This paper proposes a three-dimensional simulation method for a one-step compression-stamping process which can conduct thermoplastic compression molding and continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite stamping forming in one single mold, simultaneously. To overcome the strongly coupled non-isothermal moving boundary between the polymer and the composites, arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian based Navier–Stokes equations were applied to solve the thermoplastic compression, and a fiber rotation based objective stress rate model was used to solve for the composite stamping. Meanwhile, a strongly coupled fluid structure interaction framework with dual mesh technology is proposed to address the non-isothermal moving boundary issue between the polymer and the composites. This simulation method was compared against the experimental results to verify its accuracy. The polymer flow fronts were measured at different molding stages and the error between simulation and experiment was within 3.5%. The final composites’ in-plane deformation error was less than 2.5%. The experiment shows that this work can accurately simulate the actual molding process.