Numerical simulation of three-dimensional mold filling process in resin transfer molding using quasi-steady state and partial saturation formulations

This paper presents numerical simulations of a three-dimensional isothermal mold filling process based on the concept of control volume finite element method. Two numerical schemes are employed to track the flow front: one is based on the quasi-steady state formulation and the other is based on the formulation of partial saturation at flow front. The resulting codes named RTMS and RAPFIL, respectively, allow the prediction of flow front and pressure field in the three-dimensional molds with complex geometries. Since the preform permeability may be a function of fluid velocity, the proposed numerical schemes have accounted for velocity-dependency of permeability. This introduces complexity in the numerical schemes due to the correlation between the preform permeability and the fluid velocity during the mold filling. The validity of the two schemes is evaluated by comparison with analytical solutions for simple geometries, and excellent agreements are observed. To illustrate the applicability of the developed codes, the mold filling process of some mold geometries is simulated. A close agreement is observed between the results obtained by both codes in all cases. The CPU time required for the RAPFIL is significantly less than the RTMS as a conventional method on a personal computer and hence, the RAPFIL shows to be quite CPU time-effective for the simulation of complicated three-dimensional geometries. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.