Design and manufacture of automotive composite front bumper assemble component considering interfacial bond characteristics between over-molded chopped glass fiber polypropylene and continuous glass fiber polypropylene composite

Abstract

This work presents the experimental and finite element analysis (FEA) study of the bond behavior of a continuous glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composite rod (3D-Tow)/over-molded long chopped glass fiber-reinforced thermoplastic (LFT) composite. To obtain the interfacial bond strength between the 3D-Tow and LFT of the composite, pull-out tests were performed according to over-molding conditions of the LFT material to investigate the bond-property changes with respect to the process parameters. From the experiment results, the traction-displacement behavior of the 3D-Tow/LFT interface was derived based on the cohesive zone model (CZM). The obtained bond properties were applied to a structural simulation, which accurately predicted the mechanical behavior of a prototype front bumper assemble component made of the 3D-Tow/LFT composite.