Abstract
Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) is a polymer composite processing technique widely used in the aeronautics and automotive sectors. This paper describes the numerical simulation of the RTM process where Darcy's law was used for the mathematical formulation of the problem. A control volume finite element method was used for the determination of pressure gradients inside the mold, and a geometric reconstruction algorithm is used for the resin flow-front determination. Permeability of the medium was considered either a constant or a two dimensional tensor. The application was validated by direct comparison with literature data and good qualitative and quantitative agreement was obtained. The finite volume method was built to be used with a two-dimensional unstructured grid, hence allowing the analysis of complex geometries. The results showed that the proposed methodology is fully capable of predicting resin flow advancement in a multi-layer (with distinct physical properties) reinforced media.
Highlights
Composite materials have been widely used as an alternative material to metals
The main goal of this work is to report the preliminary development of an application for the numerical simulation of the Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) process
A computational code using a finite volume method combined to a Flow Analysis Network (FAN) technique has been developed for the simulation of the resin transport phenomenon
Summary
Composite materials have been widely used as an alternative material to metals. Many different techniques were developed for the molding of useful products. One of the most versatile technique is called Resin Transfer Molding (RTM). RTM is a very advantageous process compared to traditional techniques, because of the improvement in both performance and mechanical properties of the products. RTM is considered of low cost, able to produce more complex shapes with enhanced finishing of the parts, being largely employed in the automobile and aeronautics sectors. RTM has been used for different types of fiber reinforcements, comprised of either synthetic (e.g. carbon fibers) or natural (e.g. vegetable) fibers
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