Kenaf reinforced polypropylene composites: A numerical simulation.

Progressive development of natural materials for automotive interior parts has attracted the industry attention and given rise to a need for effective simulation of designs and concepts to help achieve an efficient manufacturing product. For this purpose, numerical simulation of the preliminary forming process was conducted using the geometry model. The numerical simulation is performed using PAM-FORM software in order to stimulate the thermoforming behavior towards shear angle, thickness distribution and strain value. Upon completion of the research, three main parameters are count to consideration including puncher velocity, puncher radius and heating temperature. Results indicated that, the optimum forming process of 10 m/s of puncher velocity, 2 mm of puncher radius and 160 °C of heating temperature was recorded to acquire an excellent end-product formation especially using hot-pressing technique. Findings indicated that the optimum parameters to produce a robust design, while improving the preliminary forming process, were a thickness and shear angles of 14.1 mm and 2.2°, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]