Today's successful engineering organizations continue to make progress towards incorporating manufacturing demands during a product's design. It is unfortunate, however, that at a time when computer simulation has revolutionized the way new products emerge, designers continue to employ ad-hoc methods to ensure that a product merely accommodates its manufacturing process and vice versa. This research seeks a new approach that places product specifications and materials processing requirements on a common basis where product and process simulation and multidisciplinary design optimization methods are central. The focus is on short fiber reinforced thermoplastic products manufactured by the injection molding process where a product's structural performance is defined by it's fiber orientation, that is itself determined during production. Optimal designs will be computed based on mold filling simulation, fiber orientation prediction, and structural evaluation. Large-scale industrial products common to automotive design are to be considered.

The goal of this research is to develop an optimization-based methodology using numerical simulation that integrates product and process requirements into a common design environment.

The broader aspects of this project include a systematic approach to simultaneously obtain the best engineering solution for a product and its manufacturing process is needed for many engineering applications. Stiffness and strength of short fiber polymer composites are superior in the fiber direction. The fiber orientation is defined by the product’s manufacturing process. Improved performance will result when both product and process requirements are integrated together in the design methodology.

Previous work in the areas of numerical optimization, injection molding process simulation, composite materials and multidisciplinary design optimization will serve as a basis for further development. The focus of our development is threefold. First is the integration of simulation and optimization tools and methodologies. Second, the further development of product and process simulation and design sensitivity analysis methods. Third, the development and application of multidisciplinary design tools to better understand the trade-offs between product and process attributes.

Various product and process simulation capabilities must be integrated to account for the interdependence of the various product and product attributes for a short fiber composite. Modern design methodologies are used to compute improved designs.

Optimization-Based Design of Polymer Sheeting Dies Using Generalized Newtonian Fluid Models. Smith, D.E. and Q. Wang. Polymer Engineering and Science, 45(7):953-965, 2005.

The Effect of Eigenvector Scaling on Eigenvector Design Sensitivity. D.E. Smith and Siddhi, V. In preparation.

Assessing the Use of Tensor Closure Methods with Orientation Distribution Reconstruction Functions. D.A. Jack and D.E. Smith. Journal of Composite Materials 38:1851-1872, 2004.

Assessing the Use of Tensor Closure Methods with Orientation Distribution Reconstruction Functions. D.A. Jack and D.E. Smith. Proceedings of ASME IMECE'03, Washington D.C., November, 2003.

Assessing the Use of Lower Order Tensors in Numerical Predictions of Flow-Induced Fiber Orientation. D.A. Jack and D.E. Smith. SPE ANTEC'2003, Nashville, Tennessee, May, 2003.

• U.S. National Science Foundation