Process-Induced Local Material Variations in Finite Element Simulations of Cast and Fibre Reinforced Injection Moulded Components

Abstract: The purpose of this thesis is to provide an overview of the methods used in the appended papers, in order to consider heterogeneous material properties in finite element simulations by using process simulations as input. The work deals with both injection moulded and cast components, and focuses on process-induced local material variations and their effect on component performance.The influence of heterogeneous properties originating from the casting process as well as some other common simplifications, which are made in finite element analyses, are evaluated for a cast iron component. It is found that commonly neglected properties such as compressive strength, residual stresses, temperature dependency and heterogeneous properties have a non-trivial and potentially large influence on the simulation results.Lastly, a computational method for fibre reinforced plastics is presented. The methodology enables designers to consider the non-linear anisotropic properties of fibre-reinforced polymers, due to the flow-induced fibre orientation predicted by injection moulding simulations. The method allows material data assignment in each integration-point of the structural mesh. The method is demonstrated to capture the behaviour of the full range of fibre orientations simultaneously with good accuracy.