TY - JOUR

T1 - Experimental validation of a new adaptable LCM mold filling software

AU - Obertscheider, Christof

AU - Fauster, Ewald

AU - Stieber, Simon

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2023/12/12

Y1 - 2023/12/12

N2 - Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) is a manufacturing process for fiber reinforced polymer composites where dry fibers are placed inside a mold and resin is injected under pressure. During mold design, filling simulations can study different manufacturing concepts (i.e. placement of injection gates and vents) to guarantee complete filling of the part and avoid air entrapment where flow fronts converge. In this work, a novel software tool LCMsim, which was implemented by the authors, is benchmarked against other tools and real-world flow experiments. Its development was driven by two ideas: Easy-of-use for the mold engineer and maximum flexibility for the researcher. Two experiments were used for validation. In the first, zones with different preform properties were present and in the second, race-tracking was enforced. Flow fronts from LCMsim and experiment agree with 7% error and simulated flow fronts from LCMsim and the commercially available software PAM-RTM agree with 3% error.

AB - Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) is a manufacturing process for fiber reinforced polymer composites where dry fibers are placed inside a mold and resin is injected under pressure. During mold design, filling simulations can study different manufacturing concepts (i.e. placement of injection gates and vents) to guarantee complete filling of the part and avoid air entrapment where flow fronts converge. In this work, a novel software tool LCMsim, which was implemented by the authors, is benchmarked against other tools and real-world flow experiments. Its development was driven by two ideas: Easy-of-use for the mold engineer and maximum flexibility for the researcher. Two experiments were used for validation. In the first, zones with different preform properties were present and in the second, race-tracking was enforced. Flow fronts from LCMsim and experiment agree with 7% error and simulated flow fronts from LCMsim and the commercially available software PAM-RTM agree with 3% error.

KW - computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

KW - filling simulation

KW - finite area method

KW - flow front tracking

KW - liquid composite molding (LCM)

KW - resin flow

KW - Resin transfer molding (RTM)

KW - shell mesh

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85179623431&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/20550340.2023.2282310

DO - 10.1080/20550340.2023.2282310

M3 - Article

VL - 9.2023

JO - Advanced Manufacturing: Polymer and Composites Science

JF - Advanced Manufacturing: Polymer and Composites Science

SN - 2055-0359

IS - 1

M1 - 2282310

ER -