NUMERICAL-SIMULATION OF NONISOTHERMAL SMC (SHEET MOLDING COMPOUND) MOLDING

Design of molding tools and molding cycles for sheet molding compounds (SMC) is often expensive and time consuming. Computer simulation of the compression molding process is a desirable approach for reducing actual experimental runs. The focus of this work is to develop a computer model that can simulate the most important features of SMC compression molding, including material flow, heat transfer, and curing. A control volume/finite element approach was used to obtain the pressure and velocity fields and to compute the flow progression during compression mold filling. The energy equation and a kinetic model were solved simultaneously for the temperature and conversion profiles. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to experimentally measure the polymerization kinetics. A rheometrics dynamic analyzer (RDA) was used to measure the rheological changes of the compound. A series of molding experiments was conducted to record the flow front location and material temperature. The results were compared to simulated flow front and temperature profiles.