A Comprehensive Review on Single- and Multi-Objective Optimization of Liquid Composite Moulding Process

Abstract

AbstractA review on numerical optimization of parameters involved in mould filling and curing that affects a class of composite moulding processes, namely liquid composite moulding (LCM) processes, is presented. The critical issues and prevention techniques of the entire process cycle are discussed to manufacture a void-free and cost-effective composite part. The key parameters discussed under mould filling stage are preform parameters such as permeability and porosity, gate and vent location, injection pressure and mould geometry, whereas the key parameters discussed under curing stage are degree of cure, mould temperature and viscosity of resin. The number of single-objective and multi-objective optimization techniques has been developed to optimize the objectives like the degree of cure, temperature overshoot, process time, gate and vent location and mould fill time. The Nelder mead simplex method, simulated annealing, GA, NSGA-II and MOOGA are the most used traditional techniques for optimizing the process as well as mould parameters. The scope of meta-heuristic or hybrid optimization techniques for constrained single- and multi-objective optimization problem in the LCM process has addressed.KeywordsComposite processingCure kineticsMould fillingNumerical optimizationStochastic techniques