Determination of Parameters and Verification of the Model for the Thermoforming Process of Polypropylene-Based Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Plastic

A set of input parameters for carbon fiber-reinforced plastic, required to build a computational model of a consolidated plate in the ESI PAM-FORM software, was defined. The results of measuring these characteristics, including test data obtained in the absence of standards, are presented. Based on the acquired material input parameters, calculations of fiber shear angles and thickness variation of the product during thermoforming were performed. Distribution maps of thickness and reinforcement angles, obtained from simulations of the “double dome” test specimen, are provided. Verification of the computational model was conducted by comparing the fiber shear angles derived from simulations with those measured on the physical specimen using the Apodius machine vision system.