Design, manufacturing and FEA prediction of the mechanical behavior of a hybrid-molded polycarbonate / continuous carbon fiber reinforced composite component

In this paper, we report a study regarding the design, manufacturing and finite element analysis (FEA) prediction of the mechanical behavior of a thermoplastic matrix/carbon fiber reinforced composite (CFRC) component. The CFRC component is constituted by a continuous carbon fiber laminate impregnated with a polycarbonate (PC) matrix, with edge and ribs overmolded with unfilled PC. The component has been manufactured by the one-step process (composite hybrid molding), with the use of rapid heat cycle molding (RHCM) to improve the surface quality. The flexural behavior has been predicted by an integrated FEA model approach, which considers the mechanical response of the composite laminate and the structural contribution of the overmolded ribs. As a result, a significant reduction of the surface roughness (Ra value decreases from 0.43 to 0.06 μm) was obtained thanks to the use of RHCM process. Moreover, the developed FEA model was able to predict the flexural behavior of the CFRC component with high accuracy (FEA maximum load 1.6% higher than the experimental value).