Numerical analysis of the compression molding process of automotive structures by means of direct fiber simulation
Mario Castro, Luca Raimondi, Davide Serradimigni, Lorenzo Donati
Abstract. Over the last decades, sheet molding compounds have become an attractive alternative material for forming complex structures in the transport and energy sectors. Given the rapid development cycles in these industries, there is an urgent need for reliable simulation tools to predict the feasibility of the process. This work aims to conduct a detailed analysis of numerical simulation applied to short-fiber composite molding processes of an automotive panel by means of two distinct simulation approaches: a conventional 2.5D flow model and a full 3D flow model to capture the characteristic advantages and challenges of each methodology. For this purpose, the commercial software 3D-TIMON (Toray Engineering Co. Ltd.) is adopted to tackle the challenge of predicting actual fiber volume content and directionality by means of a direct fiber simulation (DFS) approach, which enables the direct computation of the motion of fibers within the processing flow.
Keywords
Sheet Molding Compounds, Process Simulation, Defects Minimization
Published online 5/7/2025, 10 pages
Copyright © 2025 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Mario Castro, Luca Raimondi, Davide Serradimigni, Lorenzo Donati, Numerical analysis of the compression molding process of automotive structures by means of direct fiber simulation, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 54, pp 655-664, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644903599-71
The article was published as article 71 of the book Material Forming
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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