This study focuses on the processing of composite materials reinforced with short fibres or fibres bundles such as SMC or BMC. Firstly, an experimental work was carried-out at the macroscopic scale. This work led to the development of a lubricated compression rheometer and associated analysis methods to better characterize the rheology of SMC and BMC compounds, by accounting for the compressibility of compounds and the possible friction between the rheometer wall and the flowing composite. Numerical simulation was then achieved in order to simulate the forming of a BMC. For that purpose, the constitutive parameters of a simple tensorial rheological model were determined from experimental data obtained with the rheometer. Finally, an experimental work at the microscopic level allowed (i) the microstuctures of SMC models from X-ray microtomography micrographs and (ii) fibre pull-out experiment to be characterized, and the interaction mechanisms between the fiber bundles forming the fiber reinforcement of these materials to be modelled.
