Thermo-elastic stress analysis of injection molding short glass fiber filled polymer composite disc with holes

The aim of this study was to find out the influences of uniform thermal loads on a composite disc having many pin/bolt holes. Polymer composite disc reinforced short glass fibers were successfully produced by using injection and compression molding techniques, and microstructural observations were carried out using an electronic microscope. A thermo-elastic stress analysis was performed utilizing a finite element method (FEM). For this reason, the thermal stresses were determined by using ANSYS software package. The circular holes were created in the disc because of observing these effects on thermal stresses. The thermal loads were applied to the disc at a uniform distribution. Due to the composite disc having different thermal expansions in radial and tangential directions, thermal stresses were created in it by applied uniform thermal loads. The magnitude of the tangential stress components was higher than the radial stress components. The magnitudes and distributions of thermal stresses on the composite disc were considerably affected by increasing the uniform temperature loads and the presence of pin/bolt holes.