Development of a modular draping test bench for analysis of infiltrated woven fabrics in wet compression molding

The wet compression molding (WCM) process enables short cycle times for production of fiber-reinforced plastics due to simultaneous infiltration, viscous draping and consolidation in one process step. This requires a comprehensive knowledge of occurring mutual dependencies in particular for the development of process simulation methods and for process optimization. In this context, it is necessary to develop suitable test benches to enable an evaluation of the outlined viscous draping behavior. In order to evaluate and suitably design the draping process, grippers are mounted on a surrounding frame, which enables targeted restraining of the local material draw-in during forming. In supporting the development of the new test bench, first experimental and simulation results are compared, which thereby enables a first validation of the simulation approaches. Results show a good agreement between experimental and numerical results in terms of shear deformation and final gripper displacement under dry and viscous conditions. Results recommend that future development for investigations of viscous draping effects should focus an enabling measurement of gripper displacement during the forming process. Beyond that, the modular test bench design enables experimental and virtual draping optimization and deduction of blank holder concepts for WCM tools.