Mechanical and microstructural characterization of flowing weld lines in injection-molded short fiber-reinforced PBT

The aim of this work is an extensive experimental mechanical and microstructural characterization of flowing weld lines (WLs) in injection-molded short glass fiber-reinforced polybutylenterephthalate (PBT) using X-ray computed tomography and digital image correlation (DIC). It was found that the induced fiber orientation (FO) in a flowing WL is similar to that induced by flow along a wall. In this test case, the impact of the flowing WL on the FO did not vanish after a flow length of 70 mm. The shape of the inserts, which originated the flowing WLs, only had a marginal effect on the induced FO gradient. By reducing part thickness, the erasing of the FO gradient induced by the WL is reached at shorter flow distances. At the WLs, there is a reduction of the fiber volume fraction in comparison to the regions far from the WL plane. DIC results show a pronounced strain localization at the WL, which can be explained by the FO gradient induced by the WL.