A step towards the numerical simulation of SMC compression moulding

This work addresses the numerical simulation of compression moulding of Sheet Moulding Compound (SMC) where the behaviour of the polymer is supposed Newtonian and thermal effects are neglected. The proposed model relies on the Stokes formulation combined with Lubrication Theory, following the approach developed in [2]. It is solved using a Finite Element-Control Volume technique that allows one to track the flow front [1] of the SMC charge of composite during the compression phase. Finally, as a first step of a longer-term effort, we address confined orientation as in [4]. We predict the orientation of the suspended fibres, incorporating confinement effects that are absent in most theoretical descriptions derived from the classical Jeffery model [3]. A simple test case is addressed to verify the validity of the proposed approach.