Numerical analysis of the compression molding process of automotive structures by means of direct fiber simulation

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.