[We] introduced the topic of injection molding process simulation and the influence of the manufacturing process on structural analysis. The strength and stiffness of a part can be inaccurately represented if the manufacturing process conditions are not properly considered. This results in a different calculation of system natural frequencies or improper estimation of the energy absorbing characteristics. We continue on this topic, extending the scope to advanced technologies available in the Altair Partner Alliance (APA) to help solve the problem of proper design validation with fiber reinforced plastics.
The airbag door system is one of the most delicate aspects in the design phase of a car instrument panel: seamless systems are increasingly used, which combine styling criteria with good functional performances. These systems typically include a tear seam, which may be obtained through laser scoring, to pre-determine the location of the opening during airbag deployment. The design of the scoring line is currently validated through experimental tests on real life exemplars, submitted to airbag deployment, resulting in high development times and relevant costs. This is the main reason which suggests proposing numerical simulation in the design phase, not to substitute actual part homologation by testing but in order to limit the scope and complexity of the experimental campaign, thus reducing the development costs and the time to market. So far, modeling the scoring line has been difficult due to limitations in the testing methods and simulation codes available to the industry. The methodology proposed in this paper takes advantage from the availability of a material law as LS-Dyna SAMP-1, with polymer-dedicated plasticity, damage model and strain-rate dependent failure criteria, which is supported by local strain measurement used for material characterization. The method, here described in detail, is validated on a benchmark test, consisting in the real and virtual testing on a variety of scoring profiles obtained on a polypropylene box submitted to high speed impact test.
Optical strain measurement for the mechanical characterization of polymers, and in particular of polyolefins, is becoming a common practice to determine the parameters to be used in a finite element analysis of crash problems. This experimental technique allows measuring the strain locally on the specimen, so that it is particularly suitable when the deformation is localized, as in the case of polymers: therefore a more accurate description of the behaviour of the material is obtained. By so doing, it is possible to describe the material constitutive law in terms of the true, local strain and of the true stress. As these data are those needed by the most complete material models developed for impact calculation, it is clear that this technique is particularly suitable for coupling with the most advanced material models currently available in the F.E. codes, as for instance with Mat 187 (SAMP-1) of LS-Dyna. The local measurement of the strain can also be used for evaluating the volume strain, whose evolution with the increasing strain shows that for PP-based material the deformation is not isochoric in most the cases. The observed increase in the material volume reflects the fact that voids generate and coalesce within the material, possibly resulting in fracture. The measure of the volume strain, computed as the trace of the strain tensor, is here used for determining the damage function utilized by the damage model implemented in SAMP-1. The effective stress is here estimated as the stress which would be measured if the deformation was isochoric, and it can be assessed on the basis of the measurement of the longitudinal local strain only. Corresponding to each value of longitudinal strain, the volume strain is then used to calculate the ratio between the effective and the true stress. Adopting this procedure, the damage function is thus determined without the needs of repeated loading-unloading tests used to derive the damage parameter from the unloading slope, which is furthermore difficult to be measured. As an application, the results of the numerical reproduction of a benchmark test, consisting in a drop test on a polypropylene box, are presented and discussed
Glass-fiber-reinforced polypropylene (GF PP) materials are increasingly being used by customers to replace metal and engineering polymers in structural automotive applications. Like all glass-fiber reinforced thermoplastics, GF PP products can show anisotropy caused by fiber orientation that is induced by the injection process. Taking into account fiber orientation in the simulations enables designers to improve the accuracy of the analyses. This can help prevent arbitrary choices and assumptions when setting material parameters, which become mandatory when an isotropic material law is used. The method proposed in this paper takes advantage of the availability within Ls-dyna of an anisotropic material law (MAT_103), which allows simplified modeling to address critical issues. This law was not developed to address the problem discussed here.
Therefore, this paper illustrates a simplified approach. The presence of glass reinforced fibers is taken into account by running a mold-filling analysis, and then transferring the material flow orientation in to the structural simulation as a material angle. The dependence of the material failure strain on the material orientation can be also easily modeled through a user subroutine. Finally, the approach only requires simple material data based on basic tensile tests; the material law parameters are then identified through optimization techniques. Although this approach is based on some simplifying assumptions, its application is quick and can help the designer obtain more accurate results with respect to the traditional isotropic approach. A selection of validation tests is then proposed that show reliable predictions using limited additional computational effort.
The tempering layout for injection molds is often designed departing from previous experiences. The manufacturing feasibility is the main driver when deciding where to place cooling lines. However, often the relevance of the tempering in the process profitability or in the part quality is underestimated, and due to the lack of better information sometimes the resulting tempering performs far from the optimum. As a consequence, the molding efficiency is reduced, the part quality is compromised and, once the mold is already built, sometimes expensive trial-and-error is required to bring the mold to an optimum configuration.
As the demand for functional integration and the need of design differentiation in manufactured products increase, the complexity of plastic parts increases as well; thus some previous knowledge on effective ejection systems becomes insufficient and the challenges in the design of ejection systems grow consistently.
The profitability of a molded rubber product depends to a large extent on the mold efficiency. To achieve the maximum productivity, besides the larges possible number of cavities it is desirable to minimize the rubber consumption and to produce parts without defects.
Questo articolo si propone di illustrare l’importanza dell’utilizzo di metodi per la misura
delle proprietà locali del materiale per determinarne la legge di comportamento.
Vengono di seguito presentati alcuni esempi che evidenziano quanto più accurate
e realistiche siano le simulazioni numeriche di test di trazione ad alta velocità su provini
di poliolefine, quando vengano utilizzate proprietà dei materiali rilevate con misure locali,
utilizzando metodi ottici. La disponibilità di misure locali e più accurate evidenzia come sia
necessario che nei codici di calcolo commerciali vengano implementate delle leggi
di materiale più sofisticate di quelle disponibili attualmente, che sono state per lo più
originariamente sviluppate per materiali metallici, e dunque non riescono sempre a predire
correttamente il comportamento dei componenti in materiali polimerici.
Notwithstanding the increasing demand for polymeric materials in an
extraordinary variety of applications, the engineers have often only limited tools suitable for
the design of parts made of polymers, both in terms of mathematical models and reliable
material data, which together constitute the basis for a finite-elements based design.
Within this context, creep modelling constitutes a clear example of the needs for a more
refined approach. An accurate prediction of the creep behaviour of polymers would definitely
lead to a more refined design and thus to a better performance of the polymeric components.
However, a limited number of models is available within the f.e. codes, and when the model
complexity increases, it becomes sometimes difficult fitting the models parameters to the
experimental data.
In order to predict the polymer creep behaviour, this paper proposes a solution based on
artificial neural networks, where the experimental creep curves are used to determine the
parameters of a neural network which is then simply implemented in an Abaqus user
subroutine.
This allows to avoid the implementation of a complex material law and also the difficulties
related to match the experimental data to the model parameters, keeping easily into account
the dependence on stress and temperature.
After a discussion of the selection of the appropriate network and its parameters, an example
of the application of this approach to polyolefins in a simplified test case is presented.
"In sheet-metal-forming the forming limit curve (FLC) is used for ductile sheets to predict fracture in deep drawing.
However the use of the FLC is limited to linear strain paths. The initial FLC cannot be used in a complex nonlinear
strain history of a deep drawing process or a successive stamp and crash process including a significant change in
strain rate. The CRACH software has been developed to predict the forming limit of sheets for nonlinear strain paths
[1]. It has been validated to predict instability for bilinear strain paths with static loading in the first path and
dynamic loading in the second path for mild steels [2].
As the postprocessing of strain paths from single finite elements in CRACH is not economic for industrial
applications MATFEM initiated a project to couple CRACH directly with FEM-Code LS-DYNA using a userdefined
material model. This allows a prediction of possible failure during the simulation for all elements with
respect to their complete strain history. A special strategy has been developed to include CRACH without extensive
increase in total CPU time. The developed interface to LS-DYNA allows also the implementation of other failure
criteria demanding the history of deformation like for example a tensorial fracture criterion.
In order to test the reliability of the calculated safety factor experimental tests for bilinear strain paths have been
simulated [2]. In this case the experimental and numerical investigations have been made on two-stage forming
processes (static in the 1st stage and both static/dynamic in the 2nd stage) . The static-static case should simulate a
stamping process with bilinear strain path. The static-dynamic case should simulate a successive stamp and crash
process.
The simulation of a complex deep drawing problem including areas with significantly nonlinear strain paths has
been simulated with LS-DYNA/CRACH-coupling. It can be shown that the prediction of CRACH can differ
significantely from a “standard” prediction based on the initial FLC.
The coupling of LS-DYNA and CRACH showed the potential to predict possible fracture in deep drawing and crash
loading at an early design stage and allowed to optimise geometry and material quality to significantly reduce later
problems in real components."
