Volume 14, Issue 1, 2005

MECHANICAL AND CRASH BEHAVIOUR OF SHEET MOULDING COMPOUND MATERIALS

Qiang Yuan^a, Stuart Bateman^a and Lin Ye^b

aCSIRO Manufacturing & Infrastructure Technology
PO Box 56, Highett, Victoria 3190, Australia
bCentre of Advanced Materials Technology, School of Aerospace, Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

(Received 6/05; accepted 3/05)

Abstract
The mechanical and crush behaviour of high-performance sheet moulding compounds (SMCs) was studied. SMC laminates and half tubes were consolidated using a hot press. SMC tubes were made using two half tubes joined together with adhesive bonding and/or mechanical fastening. Both high-toughness SMC (SMC-T) and high-strength SMC (SMC-S) showed excellent tensile and flexural properties under static loading. The fracture toughness of SMC-S was somewhat higher than that of SMC-T, but at room temperature the energy absorption of SMC-T was higher than that of SMC-S. However, the impact strength of
SMC-T decreased rapidly with increasing temperature, while that of SMC-S dropped only slightly up to 100°C. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA) results showed that SMC-S maintained its mechanical properties up to 150°C, while the storage modulus of SMC-T reduced rapidly with increasing temperature. SMC tubes were crushed at a speed of 500 mm/min. The specific energy absorption of both SMC-S and SMC-T tubes could reach 50 kJ/kg. The crush strength of the mechanically fastened SMC tubes was much higher than that of adhesively bonded ones.
Keywords: Sheet Moulding Compound, Crush, Specific Energy Absorption