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Modeling of the impregnation process during resin transfer molding
Author(s) -
Chan Albert W.,
Hwang SunTak
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.760311512
Subject(s) - transfer molding , materials science , composite material , finite element method , isothermal process , molding (decorative) , viscosity , polymer , flow (mathematics) , mold , mechanics , thermodynamics , physics
A model has developed for simulating isothermal mold filling during resin transfer molding (RTM) of polymeric composites. The model takes into account the anisotropic nature of the fibrous reinforcement and change in viscosity of the polymer resin as a result of chemical reaction. The flow of impregnating resin through the fibrous network is described in terms of Darcy's law. The differential equations in the model are solved numerically using the finite element technique. The Galerkin finite element method is used for obtaining the pressure distribution. A characteristics based method is used to solve the non‐linear hyperbolic mass balance equation. The finite element formulation facilitates computations involving the motion of the polymer resin front characterized by a free surface flow phenomenon.