Direct simulation for concentrated fibre suspensions in transient and steady state shear flows

Gilles Ausias (1) , X.J. Fan , Roger I. Tanner

1 LIMATB - Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Matériaux de Bretagne

A numerical method to simulate fibre suspensions in transient and steady state shear flows for concentrated solutions is reported, which takes into account short-range hydrodynamic interaction via lubrication forces, contact forces and hydrodynamic forces. Fibres are assumed to have varying lengths as observed in industrial composites and this can be described with a fibre distribution length function. Stresses in the composite have been calculated from a constitutive equation or from an approximate expression for the effective stress of fibre suspensions. This simulation will assist in modelling of short fibre filled industrial composites. Our first results shown here qualitatively agree with experiments.

Mots clés: Fibre length distribution; Suspension; Short fibre; Direct numerical; Simulation; Bulk stress; Periodic frame

Domaines: Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des matériaux [physics.class-ph]

Gilles Ausias, X.J. Fan, Roger I. Tanner. Direct simulation for concentrated fibre suspensions in transient and steady state shear flows. Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, 2006, 135 (1), pp.46-57. ⟨10.1016/j.jnnfm.2005.12.009⟩. ⟨hal-00455424⟩