Orthotropic structural analysis of short fiber filled

thermoplastics: Abaqus – Moldflow interface,

Experimental validation
Ashok K Kancharla*, Harindranath Sharma K*, and Paul Nugent**
*Engineer, ATIP Lab, GE Global Research, SABIC Innovative Plastics
**Application Development Specialist, SABIC Innovative Plastics

Abstract: Fiber-filled injection-molded parts contain complex fiber orientation patterns depending
on the flow kinetics and the molding parameters. This fiber orientation state affects material
properties including elastic modulus and strength and part properties including shrinkage and
warpage. This requires anisotropic/orthotropic structural analysis, as isotropic analysis for these
fiber-filled thermoplastics would generally yield inaccurate results. In this work, we report a
problem where commercially available injection molding and structural analysis softwares
(Moldflow and Abaqus) are coupled together to predict the structural performance of parts
molded from short glass fiber-filled plastics. In addition, we compare the experimental and
predicted performance using finite element calculations. The major conclusion that may be drawn
is that, an orthotropic material model is generally more robust and accurate than an isotropic
analysis for fiber filled thermoplastics.

Keywords: Orthotropy, Short fiber filled composite, Fiber – orientation, Abaqus – Moldflow
Interface, Thermoplastics

1. Introduction
Thermoplastics have many advantages over metal parts including mass, ease of fabrication and
economy. Short fibers are added to polymers to improve elastic modulus, creep resistance, and
dimensional stability (De,1996, Jones,1998). Such composites find widespread use because they
can be processed with techniques used for unfilled polymers, provided the fiber length is below a
certain limit. However, the application of fiber-filled thermoplastic materials has been limited in
many cases by the inability to accurately predict performance and durability.
The behavior of the polymer composites depends upon the fiber length (Muratahan,2008) and also
the fiber – orientation distribution (David,2003). In injection-molded composites, the fiber
alignment (or orientation) distributions show a layered nature, and are affected by the filling
speed, the processing conditions and material behavior, plus the fiber aspect ratio and
concentration. Without proper consideration of the fiber behavior, there is a tendency to
significantly overestimate the orientation levels. The Moldflow fiber orientation model allows

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significantly improved orientation prediction accuracy over a range of materials and fiber contents
(Moldflow, 6.0).
The composite's major mechanical properties are derived from the elemental orientation data.
There can be a significant variation in mechanical properties with different mold geometry, fiber
content and also with the different fiber orientation models available. Fiber orientation is one of
the major factors that determine the mechanical (elastic) strength as well as the stiffness of a
molded part. Theories have been developed to predict the mechanical properties of short fiber
composites once the fiber orientation distribution in the parts is known. The Tandon-Weng
(Tandon,1984) model serves as the basis for the calculation of the composite material's
unidirectional mechanical properties. The Moldflow implementation also considers Tucker /
Liang's treatment on the Poisson ratio calculation of the Tandon-Weng model (Charles,1997). The
Halpin-Tsai procedures (Halpin, 1976) are applied for calculating the longitudinal and transverse
shear moduli and Poisson's ratios for the composite material.
Fortunately, the presence of fibers often results in a fairly linear elastic response before failure. In
such cases, an orthotropic elastic material model serves as a reasonable model, which can be used
to model anisotropic situations. The thermo-mechanical property calculation for fiber-filled
composites are based on the orthotropic assumption, that fiber-filled material properties are
different in three orthogonal principal directions. Under this assumption, Moldflow generates 9
independent mechanical constants and three independent thermal expansion coefficients for each
element. Moldflow also generates the residual stresses developed during the mold filling process
along with the material properties required for the orthotropic structural analysis.
The results from the fiber orientation analysis are used as input for the stress analysis. Linear
orthotropic analysis is carried out on a component by coupling Moldflow with Abaqus. A
comparison is made between the linear isotropic analysis and the linear orthotropic analysis with
the experimental results to prove the accuracy of orthotropic structural analysis.

2. Coupling of flow simulation and structural analysis

Given the orthotropic material properties, it is possible to couple mold filling simulation and
structural analysis to predict part performance. In this work, Abaqus is used to couple flow
simulation with the structural analysis. The Abaqus Interface for Moldflow is used to translate the
finite element model information from a Moldflow analysis into a partial Abaqus input file
(Abaqus, 6.6). The translator requires the Moldflow interface files that are created by the
Moldflow analysis. Mold filling and structural analysis is done on a commercial component to
validate the accuracy of the orthotropic analysis. The deflections obtained by the orthotropic
structural analysis are in well comparison with the experimental data. The deflections obtained
from the isotropic analysis are on the lower side compared to the experimental data. This is due to
the fact that the isotropic modeling yields a stiffer structure compared to the orthotropic modeling.
Thus, the robustness of the orthotropic structural analysis of fiber filled thermoplastics is well
validated with the experimental results.
2.1 Experimental Setup
A schematic of the experimental set up is shown in Figure1. The component made of SABIC
material is referred as „part‟ through out this paper. The part is bolted to a rectangular steel plate

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and the water is injected on to it. The component is subjected to the maximum pressure that the
part will be experiencing practically. The pressure is applied gradually up to the maximum value.
The deflections at the rim of the part are measured by the strain gauges.

Figure 1. Schematic experimental setup

The measured deflection values (normalized) are plotted against the pressure (normalized), which
is shown in Figure2. These measured values are used for the comparison with the simulated
results.

Variation of deflection with Pressure at the Rim

1.2
Exp
Poly. (Exp)
1
Normalized Deflection

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
Normalized Pressure

Figure 2. Experimental data showing the variation of deflection with pressure

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2.2 Flow Simulation
The material processing of the thermoplastics is simulated using Moldflow (MPI). Moldflow has
the capability to predict the fiber – orientations and then calculate the mechanical properties based
on these orientations. An API script is available that automatically converts the necessary result
and mesh files into a format that Abaqus can use.
MPI result and mesh files are binary files. In order to be used in Abaqus, these files need to be
converted to ASCII format. MPI uses an API script, mpi2abq.vbs, to convert these files
automatically. The MPI results are exported in *.xml format and the 3D mesh is exported in
Abaqus input (*.inp) format. For fiber-filled materials, these files are produced:

2.2.1 The principal fiber orientation directions are the eigenvectors of the fiber orientation
tensor, and the Eigen values of the fiber orientation tensor representing the
probability percentage of fibers align in the principal corresponding directions.
2.2.2 Mechanical properties are element-based nine components in principal directions
based on the orthotropic assumption. The calculations of these mechanical properties
are based on the selected micro-mechanics model and a 9-constant fiber orientation
average method along with a selected closure approximation option
2.2.3 Thermal expansion coefficients are element-based results calculated based on the
selected method in the Fiber parameters of the Fill+Pack process settings, with an
orientation average.
2.2.4 MPI passes the initial stresses calculated by the 3D Warp analysis to the interface.
These files are taken to the Abaqus translator and the process is explained in detail in the next
section. The random fiber orientation of the part in its first principal direction is shown in the
Figure 2.

Figure 3. Fiber orientation in first principal direction along with the Sprue location

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2.3 Abaqus – Moldflow translation
The files generated by the Moldflow are kept in a folder and a command is run in the command
prompt to generate the Abaqus compatible files. The command used is given below.
“abaqus moldflow job=Part 3D mpi6 element_order=2 initial_stress=on”
The procedure followed for the translation of files is shown in the form of a flowchart in figure3.

Figure 3. Translation procedure Flowchart

The translated files consist of a partial input file, material properties file, orientation file and
thermal properties file.

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2.4 Structural analysis
The partial input file generated by the Abaqus - Moldflow translator is taken to the Hypermesh
for the pre – processing. Second order tetrahedral elements (C3D10M) are used for the plastic part
and shell elements (S3 & S4) are used for the steel part. The procedure followed for the simulation
is shown in the Figure4.

Figure 4. Analysis procedure Flowchart

Appropriate loading and boundary conditions are applied to simulate the experimental setup. As
the part is fixed to the steel plate by bolts, the modeling involves the application of bolt pre –
tension into the analysis. The bolts experiences a pre – tension due to the application of torque
during tightening. Bolt pre – load is calculated based on the type of bolt and the installation torque
(Shigley, 1989).

2.4.1 Bolt pre – load calculation

Preload (P) = T/(K*D)
K = Torque constant
Torque coefficient K is a function of thread geometry, thread coefficient of friction μt, and collar
coefficient of friction μc
D = Nominal diameter of the bolt
T = Bolt installation torque

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 Figure 5. Bolt with applied torque

2.4.2 Loading and Boundary conditions

The part is fixed to the steel plate by the bolts and in the analysis, the bolts are assumed to be
connected to the plastic part by the rigid links. The calculated pre – tension is applied to the bolts
along with the pressure load on to the plastic part. Contact is established between the plastic part
and the steel plate. The bolt is allowed to move in its longitudinal direction only.

Figure 6. Boundary conditions

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3. Results
The deflections of the plastic part are calculated considering the isotropic and the orthotropic
material properties. Variation of deflection at the rim with the normalized pressure considering
isotropic material properties is shown in Figure 7. As seen from the plot, the isotropic analysis has
ceded the results indicating stiffer material properties. The red color line indicates the
experimental data and the green line indicates the simulated deflections for the isotropic material
properties. The simulated deflections are about 32% lower than the experimental data indicating
the usage of stiffer material properties.

Figure 7. Variation of deflection with pressure (Isotropic analysis)

As analyzed, it will be inappropriate to consider isotropic material properties for the simulation of
short fiber filled thermo plastics. As the material is fiber filled, orthotropic analysis is carried out
by capturing the fiber – orientation effects with the help of Abaqus – Moldflow interface.
Variation of deflection at the rim with the normalized pressure considering orthotropic material
properties is shown in the Figure 8. The red line indicates the experimental data and the blue line
indicates the simulated data. As seen from the plot, the orthotropic analysis has yielded the results
close to the experimental data with in a variation of about 4%.
Another simulation is carried out to check the credibility of bolt pre - load modeling in the
analysis. In reality, the bolt experiences tension due to the application of installation torque. Figure
9 shows the variation of deflection at the rim with normalized pressure, with out the application of
pre – tension to the bolts. The red line indicates the experimental data and the black line indicates
the calculated data with out bolt pre – tension. As expected, the deflections are on a higher side
compared to the experimental data. The calculated results are about 31% higher than the measured
data.

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 Figure 8. Variation of deflection with pressure (Orthotropic analysis)

Figure 9. Variation of deflection with pressure (Orthotropic analysis)

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A comparison is shown in the Figure 10, which shows the prominence of orthotropic structural
analysis over other cases.

Figure 10. Variation of deflection with pressure

The final deflections of the part at the rim are given in table 1. The deflections are normalized with
the experimental data for comparison.

Deflection (Normalized)

Experimental 1

Isotropic 0.68

Orthotropic 1.04

With out Bolt Pre – Tension 1.31

Table 1. Normalized deflections of the part at the rim for various cases

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4. Conclusions
This work demonstrates the necessity and accuracy of orthotropic structural analysis over isotropic
analysis for short fiber filled thermoplastics. Precise modeling of the experimental setup is
necessary to predict the results accurately. This is evidenced by the modeling of bolt pre – tension
in capturing the deflections of the part. The CAE analysis results considering orthotropic material
properties, closely match with the experimental data with in a variation of 4%. This proves the
capability of orthotropic structural analysis in predicting the results accurately for a short fiber
filled thermoplastic material.

5. References
1. De S. K, White J. R, Eds, “Short Fiber-Polymer Composites”, Woodhead Publishing:
Cambridge, 1996.
2. Jones, R. F, “Guide to Short Fiber Reinforced Plastics”, Hanser Publishers: Munich, 1998.
3. Muratahan A, Nihat A.I, Emre F, Cevdet K, “Strength of Short Fiber Reinforced Polymers:
Effect of Fiber Length Distribution”, Polymer composites, 2008.
4. David A. N, Richard E. R, “The Effect of Fiber Orientation on the Toughening of Short Fiber-
Reinforced Polymers”, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 90, 2740–2751 (2003)
5. Moldflow user manual, Moldflow plastics insight – 6.0.
6. Tandon G.P and Weng G.J, “The Effect of Aspect Ratio of Inclusions on the Elastic
properties of Unidirectionally Aligned Composites”, Polymer Composites, 5(4), 327-333
(1984).
7. Charles L. Tucker III, Erwin Liang, “Mori-Tanaka predictions without iteration in Stiffness
Prediction for Unidirectional Short-Fiber Composites: Review and Evaluation”, Pre-print,
April 9, 1997.
8. Halpin, J. C. and Kardos, J. L., "The Halpin-Tsai Equations: A Review", Polymer
Engineering and Science, 16(5), p.344 (1976).
9. Abaqus/CAE user‟s manual: Abaqus interface for Moldflow user‟s manual, 6.6
10. Shigley, Mechanical Engineering Design, 5 edition, McGraw-Hill, 1989

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6. Appendix
6.1 Isotropic material data

True Stress-Strain curve

160
140
120
Stress(Mpa)

100
80
60
40
20
0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07
Strain(mm/mm)

Young‟s Modulus – 7421MPa

Poisson‟s ratio – 0.4

6.2 Orthotropic material data

30% Glass filled material
6.2.1 Matrix data
Elastic Modulus E1 – 6562.05MPa
Elastic Modulus E2 – 3911.48Mpa
Poisson‟s ratio ν12 – 0.4284
Poisson‟s ratio ν23 – 0.4619
Shear Modulus G12 – 1653.97MPa

6.2.2 Filler data

Elastic Modulus E1 – 72000MPa
Elastic Modulus E2 – 72000Mpa
Poisson‟s ratio ν12 – 0.22
Poisson‟s ratio ν23 – 0.22
Shear Modulus G12 – 29510MPa
Aspect ratio - 25

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