The effect of material flow on the stress analysis of an SMC component

Recent published work concerning the manufacture of composite components from compression moulded sheet moulding compound suggests that an analysis of the compression moulding process should be performed before a structural analysis of the component. The flow of the material during the manufacturing process has been shown to cause significant variations in fibre orientation and concentration, hence effecting the resultant mechanical properties. Commerical software is now available to analyse the compression moulding process, however, such software represents another step and investment in the design-manufacture cycle. This paper studies the possible effect of material flow upon the analysis of a composite component manufactured from sheet moulding compound. The analysis concludes that for the component considered here, the effect of the material flow was not significant.