Fatigue life assessment in notched injection-molded specimens of a short-glass fiber reinforced Polyamide 6 with different injection gate locations

Based on a previously published Through Process Modeling (TPM) for multiaxial fatigue life assessment of injection-molded components, this work aimed to capture the difference of fiber orientation distribution ahead of notch tips in flat notched samples of PA6GF30 tested in tension at ambient temperature. The fiber orientation originated from different locations of the injection gate for an unchanged macroscopic geometry. Good lifetime estimations were obtained in Side- (resp. Top-) injected samples, regardless the choice of the sample type from which the fatigue criterion was identified. The experimentally observed differences of crack initiation zones were correlated to numerical simulations.