PREDICTING THE THERMOELASTIC RESPONSE AND RELEVANT MATERIAL PROPERTIES OF SMC

Procedures are described for the prediction of the density, specific h eat, coefficient of thermal expansion and thermoelastic constant of an SMC (Sheet Moulding Compound) composite in terms of the properties of the constituent materials (glass fibre, limestone powder and polyeste r resin) and their respective mass-fractions. The derived property dat a is presented in the form of triangular contour plots covering the fu ll range of SMC compositions. The thermoelastic response of a number o f samples of SMC material, with different glass contents, has been det ermined experimentally using the SPATE 9000 system. A good level of co nsistency is demonstrated and, whilst the experimental values of the t hermoelastic constant are smaller than the predicted values, the predi cted decreasing trend with increasing glass content is dearly shown.