Functionally graded polymer composites: Simulation of fiber distribution

Abstract

Centrifugation is a method to create functionally graded materials (FGM) with a thermosetting matrix. In this study the movement of short carbon fibers in an epoxy resin during the centrifugation process was modeled to determine the fiber distribution in the final product. For this purpose a form factor K was introduced to modify a set of equations that was previously shown to be valid for the motion of spheres. It was shown that the results of the simulation were in good agreement with the experimental data, when an empirical K factor of four was chosen.