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Applicability of Various Fracture Mechanics Approaches for Short Fiber Reinforced Injection Molded Polymer Composites and Components

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Abstract

The applicability and constraints of two fracture mechanics approaches for designing and dimensioning of short fiber reinforced injection molded components are described in the paper. For simplicity, a 3D random short fiber orientation of the component was assumed in the modeling. Based on injection molding and preliminary finite element simulations, the area of interest was selected and mode I stress intensity factors were calculated along the crack front of a corner crack in the component. Furthermore, fiber orientation dependent fracture toughness values were determined at moderate loading rates and at room temperature and compared with the mode I stress intensity factor values. Based on this comparison the occurrence of the crack initiation was predicted. Moreover, welding line formation was observed in the injection molding simulations of this model component and these simulations were verified by computer tomography images. Cohesive elements were embedded at the vicinity of the welding line in the model and the failure evolution was predicted. The existing model assumes constant fracture toughness in the entire ligament and hence constant values for the cohesive zone model. The real fracture toughness, however, depends on the fiber orientation which may vary with the distance and it requires the application of more complex cohesive zone model parameter functions. This is described in a follow-up paper of the authors.

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Acknowledgements

The research work of this paper was performed in the ACCM and KAPMT projects. The ACCM and KAPMT are funded by the Austrian Government and the State Government of Upper Austria.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Polymer Product Engineering, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria

    Z. Major, M. Miron & M. Reiter

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, 1-1 Hibarigaoka, Tempaku, 441-8580, Toyohashi, Japan

    Tadaharu Adachi

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  1. Z. Major
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  2. M. Miron
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  4. Tadaharu Adachi
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Correspondence to Z. Major .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst. of Problems in Mech. Eng., Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Alexander K. Belyaev

  2. Universität Linz, Linz, Austria

    Hans Irschik

  3. Universität Linz, Linz, Austria

    Michael Krommer

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Major, Z., Miron, M., Reiter, M., Adachi, T. (2014). Applicability of Various Fracture Mechanics Approaches for Short Fiber Reinforced Injection Molded Polymer Composites and Components. In: Belyaev, A., Irschik, H., Krommer, M. (eds) Mechanics and Model-Based Control of Advanced Engineering Systems. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1571-8_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-1571-8_24

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