Effect of Closure Approximation on Fiber Orientation Distribution in Injection Molding

Abstract

In injection molding of short-fiber reinforced thermoplastics, anisotropy in the final parts is mostly induced by fiber orientation distribution. Therefore, an accurate prediction of fiber orientation distribution is highly required foe proper design of such products. In the present investigation, numerically determined fiber orientation distributions were compared to assess the effect of recently proposed closure approximations. For this purpose, formulations for fiber orientation were incorporated into the simulation program of injection molding CAMPmold. The calculated values of fiber orientation employing different closure approximations were compared to the available experimental results in the case of film-gated strips and center-gold disk. Although the performance of the newly proposed advanced closure model is better, a further investigation is still required to match with experimental results.