3D numerical simulation of filling and curing processes in non-isothermal RTM process cycle

It is important to simulate non-isothermal RTM process cycle due to the high speed of filling mold during the filling stage and the long curing period during the curing stage. In this paper, we present numerical formulations for resin flow based on the concept of quasi-steady state situation at the filling stage and for resin cure at the curing stage. To make sure the applicability to complex product shapes, we use the four-node unstructured tetrahedron mesh, based on which the numerical formulation of temperature and cure convection is developed. The validity of our method is established in the case where flexible meshes are used. The results show that the numerical procedure, tested on known data, provides numerically valid and reasonably accurate predictions. Crown Copyright (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.