SPH Simulation for Short Fibre Recycling Using Water Jet Alignment
Samantha Huntley, Thomas Rendall, Marco L. Longana, Thomas R. Pozegic, Kevin Potter, Ian Hamerton
Abstract
This work presents a computational model for a discontinuous fibre composite manufacturing process. The alignment mechanism of this novel process, called the High Performance Discontinuous Fibre (HiPerDiF) method, involves highly coupled fluid–structure interactions. Fibres with a length on the order of a few millimetres are placed in a water suspension, sprayed between two parallel plates and deposited on a moving belt to make an aligned discontinuous fibre tape. This technology can be used as part of a composites recycling process to remanufacture reclaimed fibres into valuable recycled composite feedstock by ensuring a high level of alignment. This work aims to model the alignment mechanism using smoothed particle hydrodynamics in order to inform the design of the industrial machine. The results reveal the influence of jet angle and fibre length on the overall quality of fibre alignment.