Computational analysis and simulation of vacuum infusion molding process

The current work focuses on resin bleeding process during the Seeman composite resin infusion molding process (SCRIMP), which is a subset of liquid composite molding (LCM) process. Finite difference method (FDM) is implemented to predict the preform thickness, bleeding resin volume, and fiber volume fraction by using a non-rigid control volume. After the fibrous preform is completely impregnated, the resin flow within the preform has a great impact on the dimension and mechanical properties of the final composite parts. As the resin flows out of the preform, the resin pressure and preform thickness are reduced, which increases the fiber volume fraction and the dimension tolerance of the preform. In this paper, the influence of resin flow rate at vent in the mold is also investigated. It is found that there is a critical flow rate to optimize the SCRIMP process at the vacuum line.