Viscoelastic bending model for continuous fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites in melt

Bending of single plies or stacks of multiple plies is an essential deformation mechanism during thermoforming of thermoplastic composites. A reliable prediction of the forming process requires an accurate description of the bending behavior. To this end, a characterization method for the bending of composites under thermoforming conditions has been developed. Experiments are performed with an in-house developed bending setup and are analyzed with an analytical model, which is derived in this paper. The model describes the composite with linear elastic fibers and a matrix material that behaves as a shear thinning power law fluid. The model can represent the characteristic behavior that is measured in bending experiments with unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced PA6 composites. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.