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A coupled Moldflow–Abaqus framework for predicting interface healing in injection overmoulded thermoplastic composites

par Wintiba, Badadjida ;Karami, Javane;Chevalier, Jérémy;Kalteremidou, Kalliopi Artemi;Van Hemelrijck, Danny;Lani, Frédéric;Berke, Peter ;Massart, Thierry Jacques
Référence Composites. Part A, Applied science and manufacturing, 212, 110237
Publication Publié, 2026-09-06

Article révisé par les pairs

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Résumé :

This work presents a coupled Moldflow–Abaqus framework that relates processing conditions to interface healing in injection overmoulded thermoplastic composites, in which a short carbon fibre-reinforced poly-ether-etherketone (PEEK) is injected onto a continuous carbon fibre-reinforced poly-ether-ketone-ketone (PEKK) blank. It addresses a key limitation of commercial injection moulding softwares, namely their inability to resolve through-thickness thermal gradients across composite plies. Moldflow temperature fields exported at successive filling steps are mapped onto an Abaqus model through a progressive element activation strategy that reproduces mould filling. Five thermal contact conductances at the mould–part and polymer–polymer interfaces are reduced to two effective parameters and inversely identified with a Nelder–Mead algorithm, by fitting transient simulations to thermocouple measurements in a block-shear region. The calibrated parameters are transferred to a double cantilever beam (DCB) model of a different region with distinct flow conditions. A thermal exposure indicator is defined as the cumulative time during which the top-ply matrix remains molten on both sides, and its predicted distribution matches the DCB fracture surface morphologies: a higher composite blank temperature and a 0◦ top-ply fibre orientation enlarge the exposed, better-bonded region. Thermal exposure thus provides a qualitative indicator of interfacial bonding quality and a basis for simulation-based process-window exploration.