Mean-field homogenization of thermoelastic material properties of a long fiber-reinforced thermoset and experimental investigation

Fiber-reinforced polymers contribute significantly to weight-reducing components for various industrial applications. A discontinuous glass fiber-reinforced thermoset resin is considered which is produced by the sheet molding compound (SMC) process. Related to the production process, the samples considered in this work exhibit an anisotropic fiber orientation distribution which highly affects the thermomechanical properties. The thermoviscoelastic material behavior of three selected samples is characterized by means of dynamic mechanical analysis. These tests show the temperature-dependent elastic modulus and the glass transition of the composite. Measurements of the thermal expansion of the SMC composite provide data on the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). These experimental investigations provide data for the thermoelastic material modeling. Aiming at the prediction of the effective thermal and mechanical properties, a Hashin–Shtrikman-based homogenization method is presented. Based on an eigenstrain formulation, the effective Young’s modulus and CTE are computed in two steps. Moreover, the mean-field method is given in dependence of a variable reference stiffness allowing to tailor the approach to the material system. The influence of this variable reference stiffness on the effective quantities as well as the predicted behavior is analyzed with respect to the experiments. The presented numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental data.