Friction in Textile Thermoplastic Composites Forming

A previously developed mesoscopic friction model for glass/PP textile composite laminates during forming is evaluated for glass and carbon/PPS laminates, at higher temperatures and lower viscosities than before. Experiments were performed for tool/ply and ply/ply configurations in a new friction test set-up. The experimental results indicate that this contact is indeed in the hydrodynamic regime. The model results are sensitive to inaccuracies in the geometric representation of the textile structure, whereas the experimental results are sensitive to even slight misalignments.