Liquid Composite Molding Processes Research Articles

Non-isothermal simulation on injection/mold temperatures in liquid composite molding process

Liquid composite molding (LCM) is a leading process for manufacturing polymer materials. The LCM process is optimized by designing injection/mold temperatures in actual production. The variety rule of technics parameters such as temperature, curing degree, viscosity, and pressure in the non-isothermal LCM process is the theoretical basis for injection/mold temperatures design. Due to the typical closed mold operation, numerical simulation is the main tool for studying the LCM process. This article used numerical simulation to study the LCM process of typical 3D component. The variation of technics parameters is studied by setting different injection/mold temperatures. This study finds that temperature gradients and curing degree gradients are easily generated along the resin flow direction inside the component. Increasing the injection temperature is more significantly than mold temperature to reduce the resin viscosity and the maximum pressure inside the mold. Meanwhile, increasing the mold temperature is more beneficial than injection temperature for reducing the surface force of the mold wall. Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the injection/mold temperatures in different application scenarios.

Influence of Epoxy Spray Binder on Infusion and Cure in Liquid Composite Molding Processes

Binders are known to influence the different steps in liquid composite molding process chains. Most reseach focuses on powder binder and veils. Spray binders are rarely studied. Therefore, the effect of an epoxy spray binder on the infusion and cure steps of liquid composite molding processes is studied in this paper. Permeability measurements, solubility tests and measurements of glass transition temperature, resin cure time and resin viscosity show a complex interaction between binder and resin depending on the process conditions. The binder mostly increased the permeability of the tested preforms. This effect increases with increasing binder loading. At low fiber volume fractions the binder had a positive effect on preform permeability, most likely by to delaying the closure of macro flow channels or textile inhomogeneity. The binder did not dissolve in the resin until temperatures of around 120 °C, while remaining as a separate phase at 22 °C, 40 and 80 °C. This has to be considered when defining the cure profile of the resin, as the binder is expected to participate in the cure reaction. The glass transition temperature remained unchanged for the binder-resin combination used. An increase in viscosity by a factor of 1.5-2 was observed when the binder was dissolved in the resin. Samples with dissolved binder cured slightly faster than pure resin. The experimental results were theoretically transferred to real infusion processes.

Designed multifunctional sensor to monitor resin permeation and thickness variation in liquid composite molding process

Process monitoring of resin permeation in fiber preform and fabric thickness variation in liquid composite molding (LCM) is important to ensure the quality of the composite parts. However, existing technologies cannot monitor both of them by a single sensor and may disrupt resin flow patterns or fiber deformation inside the part due to their large thickness or rigidity. To achieve accurate monitoring of the signals within the part during the LCM process, a thin and flexible Pt-coated film capacitive sensor was designed to minimize the effect of sensor on flow behaviour. The accuracy of the embedded sensor was verified by the consistent resin flow front and the negligible fiber deformation around the sensor. Moreover, the flow front, thickness variation and curing inside composites preform in LCM can be captured based on the variation of the capacitance curve and its second derivative. These results demonstrated that this multifunctional sensor offers a new solution to obtain signals accurately in the part in LCM.

Review of Approaches to Minimise the Cost of Simulation-Based Optimisation for Liquid Composite Moulding Processes.

The utilisation of numerical process simulation has greatly facilitated the challenging task of liquid composite moulding (LCM) process optimisation, providing ease of solution evaluation at a significantly reduced cost compared to complete reliance on physical prototyping. However, due to the process complexity, such process simulation is still considerably expensive at present. In this paper, cost-saving approaches to minimising the computational cost of simulation-based optimisation for LCM processes are compiled and discussed. Their specific applicability, efficacy, and suitability for various optimisation/moulding scenarios are extensively explored in detail. The comprehensive analysation and assimilation of their operation alongside applicability for the problem domain of interest are accomplished in this paper to further complement and contribute to future simulation-based optimisation capabilities for composite moulding processes. The importance of balancing the cost-accuracy trade-off is also repeatedly emphasised, allowing for substantial cost reductions while ensuring a desirable level of optimization reliability.

RESIN FLOW ANALYSIS DURING FABRICATION OF COCONUT MESOCARP FIBER-REINFORCED COMPOSITES USING VARTM PROCESS

Resin transfer molding process (RTM) has recently emerged in liquid composite moulding process (LCM) industry. RTM consists in polymeric resin injection into a closed mold containing a pre-arranged reinforcement material. In this work, the resin flow inside a rectangular mold (310´310´7 mm3) during the fabrication of coconut mesocarp fiber-reinforced composites using vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) was simulated. A computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed in ANSYS® FLUENT using a volume of fluid (VOF) method and Darcy's law. The process was simulated for fiber volumetric fraction (xf) contents of 5%, 10%, 15% and 25%. Results showed that for percentages of reinforcement content higher than 25%, air trapping and incomplete filling of the mold occur. Simulated filling times were in acceptable agreement with the values obtained experimentally.

Computational modelling and analysis of transverse liquid composite moulding processes

Computational modelling and analysis of transverse liquid composite moulding processes

A Numerical Thermo-Chemo-Flow Analysis of Thermoset Resin Impregnation in LCM Processes

This paper presents a numerical framework for modelling and simulating convection-diffusion-reaction flows in liquid composite moulding (LCM). The model is developed in ANSYS Fluent with customised user-defined-functions (UDFs), user-defined-scalar (UDS), and user-defined memory (UDM) codes to incorporate the cure kinetics and rheological characteristics of thermoset resin impregnation. The simulations were performed adopting volume-of-fluid (VOF)-a multiphase flow solution-based on finite volume method (FVM). The developed numerical approach solves Darcy's law, heat transfer, and chemical reactions in LCM process simultaneously. Thereby, the solution scheme shows its ability to provide information on flow-front, viscosity development, degree of cure, and rate of reaction at once unlike existing literature that commonly focuses on impregnation stage and cure stage in isolation. Furthermore, it allows online monitoring, controlled boundary conditions, and injection techniques (for design of manufacturing) during the mould filling and curing stages. To examine the validity of the model, a comparative analysis was carried out for a simple geometry, in that the numerical results indicate good agreement-3.4% difference in the degree of cure compared with previous research findings.

An Overview of the Measurement of Permeability of Composite Reinforcements.

Liquid composite molding (LCM) is a class of fast and cheap processes suitable for the fabrication of large parts with good geometrical and mechanical properties. One of the main steps in an LCM process is represented by the filling stage, during which a reinforcing fiber preform is impregnated with a low-viscosity resin. Darcy's permeability is the key property for the filling stage, not usually available and depending on several factors. Permeability is also essential in computational modeling to reduce costly trial-and-error procedures during composite manufacturing. This review aims to present the most used and recent methods for permeability measurement. Several solutions, introduced to monitor resin flow within the preform and to calculate the in-plane and out-of-plane permeability, will be presented. Finally, the new trends toward reliable methods based mainly on non-invasive and possibly integrated sensors will be described.

Sensitivity of transverse Liquid Composite Moulding processing predictions to variations in constitutive data

Transverse Liquid Composite Moulding (LCM) processes for the impregnation of thick parts have been gaining interest recently. Simulations of transverse LCM processes require accurate input of constitutive data to make useful predictions; however, accurate constitutive data are not always available and the magnitudes of deviations due to interpolation and extrapolation errors are not entirely known. The international out-of-plane compressibility and permeability benchmark exercises have shown large variations in both quantities, for each participant, and between different participants. In this work, a simulation model of transverse impregnation and compression for LCM processes is utilised to study the sensitivity of processing predictions to variations in constitutive data resulting from different fitting techniques. It is shown through a case study on saturated permeability measurements that significantly different predictions of the flow rate during permeability measurements arise from relatively small differences in the constitutive data. This study demonstrates the importance of accurate measurement and modelling of the compaction stress gradient and permeability for input into simulations.

Novel test-rig for compaction behaviour analysis of textile reinforcements for improved RTM-process replication

This paper presents a novel testing method for evaluating the compaction behaviour of textile reinforcements in the context of liquid composite moulding processes. The existing testing approach utilizing pre-saturated samples (ex-ante) fails to accurately represent the unsaturated state of samples during vacuum infusion or resin transfer moulding (RTM) processes, leading to unreliable results and potential discrepancies with simulation. To address this limitation, a newly designed test-rig is introduced in this study, enabling compressibility testing based on real process specifications. The proposed method allows for the measurement of both dry and wet compression characteristics using a single specimen through in-situ impregnation of the materials under compressive load. Moreover, the test-rig enables tests according to ex-ante specifications, facilitating direct comparison with the proposed in-situ method. Finally, the test-rig allows for compressibility tests at elevated temperatures up to 200 °C. This is of particular relevance for studying the compaction behaviour of bindered technical fabrics. Preliminary comparative tests demonstrate excellent agreement between the results obtained using the ex-ante method under the 2020 international benchmark exercise and the novel in-situ impregnation method. This confirms the validity and reliability of the results obtained through the proposed testing method. By providing a more realistic representation of the compaction behaviour of textile reinforcements, the novel approach presented in this study offers valuable insights for optimizing liquid composite moulding processes and improving the accuracy of simulation models.

Desarrollo de formulaciones de PUR más sostenibles para aplicaciones estructurales

The industry decarbonization has become in a fundamental challenge for the industries such as automotive or wind power. In this way, the structural components lightening is one of the principal issues for material manufacturers. For this objective, the composites are a competitive alternative, due to their unique relation between their strength and weight. Among the different structural composite part fabrication processes, liquid composite moulding (LCM) is one of the most interesting, due to its efficiency in terms of costs, time and energy consumption. In this sense, resins with fast cure and low viscosity are gaining attention, among them polyurethanes are of particular interest. This family of polymers is characterized by its great versatility, among them high-performance thermosetting polyurethanes (PUR). The advantages offered by PUR-based technology are great fatigue resistance, low viscosity and fast cure. However, the commonly used PUR’s for structural applications have some environmentally drawbacks, such as their components petrochemical origin and their low recyclability. For this reason, the aim of this work was the development of a more sustainable PUR formulation with the required mechanical properties for structural applications and suitable processability for LCM processes. Because of that, this work has focused on the analysis, synthesis and characterization of new PUR formulations and also the manufacturing process simulation and optimization.

Controlling resin flow in Liquid Composite Moulding processes through localized irradiation with ultraviolet light

AbstractA vacuum infusion process was implemented to produce composite specimens from a random glass filament mat and an acrylic modified polyester resin curable upon irradiation with ultraviolet (UV) light. Through localized irradiation with UV light during the reinforcement impregnation, the viscosity of the flowing resin was increased selectively. This allowed converging–diverging flow patterns with defined inclusions to be realized and racetracking along reinforcement edges to be suppressed. The approach is based on radical photopolymerisation. Here, the degree of cure and the viscosity of the resin increase under direct irradiation, such that the resin gels and the flow stalls in a matter of seconds, but remain unchanged in areas covered with an opaque mask. While this study is concerned with the feasibility of the process, potential practical applications are in flow control for Liquid Composite Moulding, that is, compensation for local variations in the fiber volume fraction and permeability of reinforcements.

Transverse liquid composite moulding processes for advanced composites material manufacturing

ABSTRACT The hydrodynamic compaction behaviour in transverse (through-thickness) impregnation variants of Liquid Composite Moulding (LCM) results in a non-homogeneous fibre volume fraction distribution. A fully coupled simulation model of the entire family of transverse resin infusion/compression processes is presented, which simulates the hydrodynamic compaction behaviour and predicts the process time, fluid pressure, effective stress, and fibre volume fraction distribution. The model is applied to the compression of a saturated preform stack, resin injection into a dry preform, and Compression Resin Transfer Moulding. The simulations are verified using analytic solutions and validated against experimental results from the literature. Special forms of the constitutive equations are constructed to lead to a constant diffusion coefficient, and the resulting model is solved semi-analytically. The results are used to verify the full non-linear simulation model. Additionally, it is shown that assumptions of quasi-steady flow and uniform deformation introduce significant errors in processes involving direct piston compaction of the fibre preform.

Filling Time Reduction in Liquid Composite Molding Processes

The quality of Liquid Composite Molding (LCM) manufactured components is strictly related to the fibrous preform impregnation. As Darcy’s law suggests, the resin flow is influenced by the pressure gradient, geometrical features of the reinforcement, and resin viscosity. The former two parameters are dictated by the requirements of the component and other constraints; therefore, they are hardly modifiable during the process. Resin preheating increases its fluency, thus enhancing the impregnation and saturation flow, and reducing the mold filling time. In the present work, a microwave heating system has been integrated within a vacuum bag resin infusion process, to analyze the effect of the online preheating on the fiber impregnation. To monitor the resin flow a dielectric sensors-based system is used. Results from resin infusion tests conducted with and without the resin pre-heating were compared: the outcomes indicated an advance of approximately 190 s of the flow front when microwave heating is applied with respect to the unheated tests.

Investigation of the compaction behaviour of a quasi-unidirectional non-crimp fabric during the vacuum infusion process

The compaction behaviour of technical textiles such as non-crimp fabrics (NCF) is of much interest to build high quality parts in liquid composite moulding processes (LCM). In this paper, the compaction response of a glass fibre NCF was investigated in two different ways: (1) characterisation tests via a universal testing machine and (2) height measurements via a line laser measurement unit during the infusion process. Results from both measurement systems are compared and it is found that the results of characterisation tests via testing machine can be used only to a certain extent. The pressure-thickness correlation during the infusion process cannot be described by the results of the testing machine, while the compaction results before and after the infusion process are in good agreement for both the methods. With the data of the line laser measurement, a model for the pressure-thickness correlation is derived, which can be used in future simulations. The infusion process was carried out using different scenarios at the vent, on the one hand a semi-permeable membrane and on the other hand an omega profile at the venting port. The results obtained using these two different venting scenarios were compared and it was found that using a semi-permeable membrane as an outlet can lead to thicker parts (up to 10 %).

Saturated out-of-plane permeability and deformation metrology of textiles at high levels of injection pressure

Out-of-plane impregnation and high levels of injection pressure are key strategies for cycle time reduction in Liquid Composite Molding processes. The combination of these two strategies provides a promising approach for large volume production of automotive components. In this context, a novel test system is presented, which allows the textile reaction characterization to saturated out-of-plane fluid flow at injection pressure levels of up to 200 bar. For any given engineering textile, the resulting out-of-plane permeability and total hydrodynamic compaction can be measured for different combinations of initial fiber volume content, number of layers and injection pressure. Initial tests on a conventional non-crimp fabric show a compaction-induced out-of-plane permeability decrease for pressure levels up to 95 bar, while for pressure levels between 95 and 170 bar the permeability remains constant. In other words above 95 bar, a further increase in pressure directly pays off in terms of increased flow rate. The identification of such processing windows can be very valuable for process design.

Capillary Effects in Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite Processing: A Review

Capillarity plays a crucial role in many natural and engineered systems, ranging from nutrient delivery in plants to functional textiles for wear comfort or thermal heat pipes for heat dissipation. Unlike nano- or microfluidic systems with well-defined pore network geometries and well-understood capillary flow, fiber textiles or preforms used in composite structures exhibit highly anisotropic pore networks that span from micron scale pores between fibers to millimeter scale pores between fiber yarns that are woven or stitched into a textile preform. Owing to the nature of the composite manufacturing processes, capillary action taking place in the complex network is usually coupled with hydrodynamics as well as the (chemo) rheology of the polymer matrices; these phenomena are known to play a crucial role in producing high quality composites. Despite its importance, the role of capillary effects in composite processing largely remained overlooked. Their magnitude is indeed rather low as compared to hydrodynamic effects, and it is difficult to characterize them due to a lack of adequate monitoring techniques to capture the time and spatial scale on which the capillary effects take place. There is a renewed interest in this topic, due to a combination of increasing demand for high performance composites and recent advances in experimental techniques as well as numerical modeling methods. The present review covers the developments in the identification, measurement and exploitation of capillary effects in composite manufacturing. A special focus is placed on Liquid Composite Molding processes, where a dry stack is impregnated with a low viscosity thermoset resin mainly via in-plane flow, thus exacerbating the capillary effects within the anisotropic pore network of the reinforcements. Experimental techniques to investigate the capillary effects and their evolution from post-mortem analyses to in-situ/rapid techniques compatible with both translucent and non-translucent reinforcements are reviewed. Approaches to control and enhance the capillary effects for improving composite quality are then introduced. This is complemented by a survey of numerical techniques to incorporate capillary effects in process simulation, material characterization and by the remaining challenges in the study of capillary effects in composite manufacturing.

Effect of interleaved fiber mats on the manufacturability and mechanical properties of carbon/epoxy composites

Fracture toughness is a critical property of composites, especially in the case of materials manufactured by liquid composite moulding processes because of the brittleness of the thermoset polymeric matrix. The use of thermoplastic interleaving veils can improve the fracture behaviour affecting only slightly other mechanical properties. Also, the veils can affect the manufacturability of the composites. This work presents a study of the influence of commercial and homemade veils on the manufacturability process and mechanical properties of carbon fibre reinforced composites. Results obtained show a significant improvement of fracture toughness without affecting manufactubarility.

Analysis of uncertainty using stochastic flow simulation of LCM at constant thickness

Liquid Composite Moulding (LCM) process design requires that the resin impregnation minimizes both mould filling time, as well as the probability of occurrence of dry, unsaturated zones. This can be challenging, as the degree of variability present in material properties and the manufacturing process itself, can be substantial. The main purpose of this study is to understand and quantify how the different sources of variability, present in LCM, may affect the performance of the mould filling process, creating defects and to quantify how lower scale interactions may affect macro-scale flow. In order to transfer the meso-scale stochastic behaviour towards a complete macro-scale model, an uncertainty propagation model is proposed, whereby local statistical properties are used to predict the upscaled flow behaviour. This is done by means of flow simulation, using stochastic models for the input process variables. Local fabric distortions, combined with fabric permeability, pressure and race-tracking serving as inputs to estimate the joint probability distribution that characterizes the global uncertainty in flow performance. Preliminary uncertainty analyses investigating individual sources of variability are available in the literature, however, a complete framework combining the different variables into a mould filling scenario, was not found. Therefore, this study tries to develop a new multi-variable aggregating concept that is applied to mould filling simulation. The individual contribution of each source of variability used in this work is quantified, providing a better understanding of the reliability of alternative process designs.

Analysis of uncertainty using stochastic flow simulation of LCM at constant thickness

Liquid Composite Moulding (LCM) process design requires that the resin impregnation minimizes both mould filling time, as well as the probability of occurrence of dry, unsaturated zones. This can be challenging, as the degree of variability present in material properties and the manufacturing process itself, can be substantial. The main purpose of this study is to understand and quantify how the different sources of variability, present in LCM, may affect the performance of the mould filling process, creating defects and to quantify how lower scale interactions may affect macro-scale flow. In order to transfer the meso-scale stochastic behaviour towards a complete macro-scale model, an uncertainty propagation model is proposed, whereby local statistical properties are used to predict the upscaled flow behaviour. This is done by means of flow simulation, using stochastic models for the input process variables. Local fabric distortions, combined with fabric permeability, pressure and race-tracking serving as inputs to estimate the joint probability distribution that characterizes the global uncertainty in flow performance. Preliminary uncertainty analyses investigating individual sources of variability are available in the literature, however, a complete framework combining the different variables into a mould filling scenario, was not found. Therefore, this study tries to develop a new multi-variable aggregating concept that is applied to mould filling simulation. The individual contribution of each source of variability used in this work is quantified, providing a better understanding of the reliability of alternative process designs.