Numerical modelling of the flow in the resin infusion process on the REV scale: A feasibility study

Abstract

Abstract. The resin infusion process (RIP) has developed as a low cost method for manufacturing large fibre reinforced plastic parts. However, the process still presents some challenges to industry with regards to reliability and repeatability, resulting in expensive and inefficient trial and error development. In this paper, we show the implementation of 2D numerical models for the RIP using the open source simulator DuMu X . The idea of this study is to present a model which accounts for the interfacial forces coming from the capillary pressure on the so-called representative elementary volume (REV) scale. The model is described in detail and three different test cases -a constant and a tensorial permeability as well as a preform/Balsa domain -are investigated. The results show that the developed model is very applicable for the RIP for manufacturing of composite parts. The idea behind this study is to test the developed model for later use in a real application, in which the preform medium has numerous layers with different material properties.

Multiphysics modelling of manufacturing processes: A review

“…Upon curing a structural unified solid combination of these materials is achieved, resembling the mould geometry. Many different variations of this basic process exist, for instance pultrusion, 160,161 filament winding, 162,163 resin transfer moulding (RTM), [164][165][166] vacuum infusion (VI), 167 vacuum-assisted resin transfer moulding (VARTM), 168 to name a few. 169 In this article, focus is on two different processing methods: pultrusion and VARTM, see Figures 13(a) and (b), respectively.…”