The first European benchmark exercise on squeeze flow testing of high-performance carbon fibre sheet moulding compounds

High-performance C-SMCs typically consist of long carbon fibre reinforcement with high fibre content and can be compression moulded at elevated temperatures and pressures to form parts with complex geometries. Squeeze flow testing has been increasingly adopted for experimentally characterising the flow behaviour of C-SMCs, but the reliability and repeatability of the testing results are low due to the lack of standardised methods. This paper presents a benchmarking exercise on C-SMC squeeze flow testing, jointly delivered by 14 European research institutes, with the objective of quantifying the variabilities in the testing results and identifying their sources.