5. Conclusion

The processing of fiber-reinforced polymers must take account of flow mechanics to obtain fiber orientations leading to optimum properties. The basic rules, and in particular the roles of shear and elongation, are now well known. Quantifying the degree of orientation remains an arduous and time-consuming task. Calculations for predicting orientation are gradually being perfected, and are already helping to design molds, in particular the location of sills and dies. However, more needs to be done to better integrate certain phenomena, such as interactions between fibers, or the viscoelastic nature of the matrix. The next step is to couple these orientation calculations with mechanical properties calculations to obtain a complete tool.