LAUSR

Abstract This study simulates the breakage behavior of glass fibers subjected to simple shear flow by modeling an individual fiber as a chain of connected spheres and considering fiber-fiber interaction. The simulation results show that the fiber length decreases as viscosity, shear rate, and fiber volume fraction increases. In contrast, with increasing time, the fiber lengths obtained from different initial fiber lengths converge to nearly the same value. These trends are in qualitative agreement with those observed in an existing experiment, revealing that the simulation methodology in this study is applicable to the prediction of fiber length degradation. Concerning the breakage mechanism due to the fiber-fiber interactions, it is suggested that the fiber bending caused by the interactions not only directly results in breakage but also easily triggers the flow-induced fiber deformation that leads to breakage. In addition, the fiber-wall interactions are found to affect the breakage of fibers near walls.