Validation of a smoothed particle hydrodynamics model for a highly aligned discontinuous fibre composites manufacturing process

This work presents a computational model for a discontinuous fibre composite manufacturing process. The alignment mechanism of this novel process, called the High Performance Discontinuous Fibre (HiPerDiF) method, involves highly coupled fluid-structure interactions. Fibres with a length on the order of a few millimetres are placed in a water suspension, sprayed between two parallel plates and deposited on a moving belt to make an aligned discontinuous fibre tape. This technology can be used as part of a composites recycling process to remanufacture reclaimed fibres into valuable recycled composite feedstock by ensuring a high level of alignment. In order to industrialise this process, the throughput must be increased whilst maintaining the high level of alignment. This work aims to assist this development by modelling the alignment mechanism using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). It is shown through comparison to experiments that SPH models the process well and captures the influences affecting fibre alignment.