Numerical simulation of flow through porous media. A control volume approach in combination with higher order finite elements.

This work deals with the numerical simulation of the well known resin transfer molding process which is implemented in the composites manufacturing industry. A numerical scheme based on the traditional finite element / control volume technique is adopted. Emphasis has been given on the use of higher order isoparametric h-elements. Numerical implementation has shown that quadratic triangular elements provide a satisfactory level of accuracy in terms of filling time prediction when compared to linear elements. The key of success behind the whole idea is that the mid-side nodes are only used for the calculation of the pressure field but no control volumes are formed around them. The gain from this formulation is that the number of iterations required to fill the mould cavity is significantly lower than the number of iterations that would be required from a linear element mesh with the same number of nodes, thus requiring a much lower CPU time.