Analysis of three dimensional resin transfer mold filling process

Resin Transfer Molding(RTM) is a process in which thermoset resin is injected into a mold cavity pre-loaded with porous fibrous preform. For parts with small thickness, the mold filling process can be modeled as two dimension by neglecting the resin flow in the thickness direction. However, thicker parts require extensive resin flow along the thickness and thus the three dimensional effect in the resin flow must be considered. In this study, numerical simulations of three dimensional mold filling process during resin transfer molding were performed. The location of resin front, pressure, temperature and the degree of cure were calculated as functions of time. Experiments were also performed. To measure the resin front location as a function of time in the preform, optical fiber was used as a sensing element. The agreements between the experimental data and the numerical results were found to be satisfactory. The computer code developed in this study was applied to SCRIMP that is a kind of vacuum assisted RTM with flexible tooling.