Determination of orthotropic properties of glass fibre reinforced thermoplastics using X-ray tomography and multiscale finite element computation

We report a new approach to measure orthotropic properties of short glass fibre reinforced thermoplastics at the macroscopic scale taking into account all microstructural details. 3D imaging technique based on X-ray micro-tomography is used to assess fibrous architecture of an injected part at different positions characterised by different fibre flow histories. Finite element computation is used as a multiscale process, firstly by computing orthotropic parameters at a micro-scale for hundreds of bi-phasic 3D domains composing the macrostructure of the composite at all studied positions. Results are implemented in a second finite element computation as a collection of orthotropic material models composing the heterogeneous structure of the composite. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.