Fiber alignment induced deformation in fiber reinforced

thermoplastic parts
Andrei Bazavan
Eduard Tudor
Injection molded short fiber reinforced composite have generated commercial interest in the
manufacturing of lightweight parts used in semi-structural applications. Predicting these
materials` fiber orientation with quantitative accuracy is crucial for technological advancement,
but the task is difficult because of the effect of inter-particle interactions at high concentrations
of fiber found in parts of commercial interest.
1. Introduction
One major problem that arises in the design of plastic parts, especially those that are fiber
reinforced, is the change in the part`s shape and dimensions as a result of shrinkage and warpage.
Shrinkage and warpage result from material anisotropies caused by flow induced fiber
orientation, curing, poor thermal mold lay-out, and processing conditions. Shrinkage and
warpage are directly related to residual stresses that result from locally varying strain fields that
occur during the curing or solidification stage of a manufacturing process.
In the research presented herein, the development of lightweight composite materials made by
the injections molding process will be explored.
The improvement in mechanical properties is dependent on the particle orientation through the
whole part. The greatest increase in such properties occurs when the fibers are aligned in the
direction of mechanical interest. However, the particle orientation varies through the part as a
consequence of flow-induced orientation within the mold during the forming stage.
2. Distribution of shrinkage
The mechanical properties of glass and thermoplastics differ by orders of magnitude. A glass
fiber is approximately 40 times more rigid than the plastic surrounding it, while its thermal
expansion is only about 1/30th. The fiber exert their effects primarily in the direction of the fibers
while in the direction transverse to this the properties of the plastic predominate (Fig.1).

Fig 1. Cutout of a component containing glass fibers

3. Basic calculations

To see what the effects of the manufacturing process are on the material some basic calculations were
done using the Classical lamination theory with temperature effects. Because the geometry of the part was
complex the assumption that the part is a flat plate with a constant thickness was made.
The Classical lamination theory determines the deformation on one side of a laminated plate taking into
account the mechanical loads on the plate. When taking into account temperature effects the thermal
stresses that result from forming and curing the part are taken into account for the calculations.
The part as mentioned before was assumed to be a rectangular plate, 800*800mm in dimension with a
thickness of 4mm. The parameters for the thermal and mechanical effects were the ones given in the
injection process parameters.

Fig 2. Deformation of the rectangular plate

The final assumption made is that all the fibers in the laminate are aligned and the deflection and
shrinkage are calculated for a direction perpendicular to the fibers.
After computing the calculations the value of the volumetric shrinkage was determined to be
approximately 8.5% and the maximum deflection in the direction perpendicular to the fibers to be
approximately 18 mm.

4. Simulation parameters and results

There were a number of simulations done with varying parameters. The first set of simulations consisted
of simulations done with the part being made out of the material with and without fiber reinforcement.
The second set of simulations was with the fiber reinforced thermoplastic, constant mould temperature,
but variation of the temperature and injection pressure of the material.
The third set of simulation was done keeping the injection pressure and material temperature constant and
varying the mold temperature.
The last set of simulations was done varying the number of injection points and keeping all the other
parameters constant.
After doing the first set of simulations and analyzing the results it was determined that fiber alignment
does not cause the warpage of the part. When analyzing the results the difference of the overall warpage
between the part with 10% fiber content and the part without fiber content was less than 5%.
After determining that the fibers are not the main cause of warpage other parameters had to be
investigated to see the mechanism and cause of the warpage.

a. b.

c. d.
Figure 3. a.

warpage, b. sink mark, c.volumetric shrinkage, d. weld lines

By analyzing the results from the simulations 2 main causes were identified to be responsible for the high
warpage: uneven shrinkage and a sink mark.
The uneven shrinkage is caused by the material not cooling uniformly and by the flow patterns inside the
mold. As it can be seen in from figure c. there is a high volumetric shrinkage around the injection points
were the material has the highest temperature and low shrinkage on the weld lines, where the material has
the lowest temperature.
Because the temperature has an influence on the shrinkage and therefore the warpage,the influence of the
material temperature and the mold temperature was analyzed.
 Material temperature influence

Warpage
Shrinkage

Figure 4. The influence of the material temperature

As it can be seen from the above graph the material temperature has a big influence on the amount of
warpage and shrinkage. As determined in the previous statement the lower the material temperature the
lower the overall shrinkage and warpage. Although this is a good method to reduce warpage, the low
material temperature means high viscosity and therefore high injection and holding pressure.

Mould temperature influence

Warpage
Shrinkag
e
 Figure 5. The influence of the moul temperature

The mold temperature doesnt have a lot of influence on the overall shrinkage and warpage of the part,
although, as it can be seen from the graph, there is a certain temperature are where the warpage is very
high.
The last set of simulations was done with a varying number of injection points a size of the injection
points. This revealed that the injection points have almost no influence on the warpage and shrinkage of
the part. The only problem with having a low number of injection points is a difficulty to fill the part and
the presence of air pockets.

5. Improvement solutions
1. Increase the stiffness of the part
2. Increase the holding pressure
3. Use differential cooling when forming the part

Increase the stiffness of the part

One of the main reasons of the high warpage of

the part is low part stiffness due to low thickness
and lack of strengthening ridges. A simulation
was done with a simple 10 mm wide and 2 mm
thick vertical ridge added to the area of the part
with the highest warpage. The results of the
simulations were a reduction of the overall
warpage of 2.5mm compared to the part without
the ridge under the same simulation parameters.

Figure 6. Part stiffener

Increase the holding pressure

The holding pressure has a big influence on the internal stresses that occur. In the first set of simulation
the holding pressure was not taken into account because all the simulations were done to have the same
fill rate. Another simulation was done using the maximum holding pressure that can be generated by
injection molding machines (200 MPa). Comparing the results from this simulation with the results from
a previous simulations (50 MPa holding pressure) that the overall warpage was reduced by approximately
20%.

Differential cooling

Differential cooling is used to reduce the internal stresses of the part during the forming process or
concentrate the thermal stresses in one area. During the cooling process a temperature difference of 50-
60C can result in reduction of the warpage of approximately 10%. Although this is a good method to
reduce warpage the cost of cooling system and the longer time needed for production dont make it a
feasible solution.

6. Conclusion
The simulation work presented here can help the engineer better understand the physics of the
phenomena that take place during solidification and the effect that different processing
conditions have on shrinkage and warpage of fiber reinforced composite parts.
As it can be seen the warpage is not caused by the fiber reinforcement of the part but to a number
of other factors: material temperature, mold temperature, pressure, stiffness, etc. A variation of
these parameters can have both positive and negative effects on the amount of warpage. An
optimal value for each parameter can drastically improve the final result.

[1] T.D. Papathanasiou, D.C. Guell (Eds.), Flow-induced alignment in composite materials,
Woodhead Publishing Ltd, Cambridge (1997), pp. 113165
[2] Osswald, T. A., Turng, L.S. & Gramann (2008) Chapter 5 Fundamentals of designing products,
in Injection Molding Handbook. Carl Hanser Publishers.
[3] Huang, M. C. & Tai, C. C. (2001) The effective factors in the warpage problem of an injection-
molded part with a thin shell feature, Vol. 110, No. 1.