ANISOTROPIC VISCOSITIES OF ORIENTED DISCONTINUOUS FIBER LAMINATES

Two theories have been compared for the prediction of the effective viscosities of laminates made up of layers of oriented discontinuous fiber assemblies suspended in a viscous fluid. In the first theory, the layers are constrained to exhibit identical strain-rate components, while in the second theory the individual layers are assumed to be unconstrained by one another. Results are presented for four typical laminates and for material properties of a highly anisotropic assembly. These results indicate that the properties presented for the constrained condition equal or exceed those predicted for the unconstrained theory in all cases.