Experimental and numerical porbabilistic multiscale investigation of short-fiber reinforced polymers

Short-fiber reinforced composites are used in lightweight construction due to their numerous advantages: they have a high strength-to-weight ratio together with a low specific density and can be manufactured cost efficiently in complex geometries. Standard manufacturing technologies like injection-molding can be used. In this contribution, the material uncertainty of a short fiber reinforced composite material is investigated by mechanical characterization and multiscale simulations based thereon. The objective is to assess the propagation of uncertainties across the scales. Uncertainties in short-fiber reinforced composites can be caused by a scatter in the material properties but especially by a local variation in the fiber orientation and fiber density. Experimental results of mechanical testing showed a scatter of the mechanical properties inside a plate and between different plates. This scattering is mainly caused by the scattering of the fiber orientation. Microstructure generation and simulation enable the investigation of the local microstructure influence.