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Resin Transfer Molding Process: Fundamentals, Numerical Computation and Experiments

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Numerical Analysis of Heat and Mass Transfer in Porous Media

Part of the book series: Advanced Structured Materials ((STRUCTMAT,volume 27))

Abstract

Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) is one of the most widely known composite manufacturing technique of the liquid molding family, being extensively studied and used to obtain advanced composite materials comprised of fibers embedded in a thermoset polymer matrix. The fibrous reinforcement is considered a porous medium regarding its infiltration by the polymer resin. In this sense, this chapter aims to briefly discuss multiphase flow and heat transfer theory in RTM process, focusing on a multifluid model and the Control Volume/Finite Element (CV/FE) method. Finally, computational analysis was developed on the basis of ANSYS CFX® and PAM-RTM commercial software’s for the investigation of the fluid flow in RTM composite molding. In order to show the versatility and performance of the commercial codes, RTM experiments were carried under distinct injection pressure and fiber volume fraction conditions using plain-weave glass fiber cloth as the porous media. The transient numerical simulations provided information about volume fraction, pressure and velocity distribution of the phases (resin and air) inside the porous media.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank to the Brazilian agencies CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico) and CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) for supporting this work, and are also grateful to the authors of the references in this chapter that helped in the improvement of quality. Sincere thanks to Prof. João M.P.Q. Delgado (Editor) by the opportunity given to present our research in this book.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, 91501-970, Brazil

    Felipe Ferreira Luz & Sandro Campos Amico

  2. Federal University of Rio Grande, Rio Grande, RS, 96201-900, Brazil

    Jeferson Ávila Souza

  3. Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, PB, 58429-900, Brazil

    Enivaldo Santos Barbosa

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, PB, 58429-900, Brazil

    Antonio Gilson Barbosa de Lima

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  1. Felipe Ferreira Luz
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  2. Sandro Campos Amico
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  3. Jeferson Ávila Souza
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  4. Enivaldo Santos Barbosa
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  5. Antonio Gilson Barbosa de Lima
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antonio Gilson Barbosa de Lima .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade do Porto, Laboratorio de Fisica das, Faculdade de Engenharia, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, Porto, 4200-465, Portugal

    J.M.P.Q. Delgado

  2. , Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Campina Grande, Campina Grande, Brazil

    Antonio Gilson Barbosa de Lima

  3. Norte, CESPU, Department of Sciences, Instituto Superior de Ciências da Saúde, Rua Central de Gandra 1317, Gandra, 4585-116, Portugal

    Marta Vázquez da Silva

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Luz, F.F., Amico, S.C., Souza, J.Á., Barbosa, E.S., de Lima, A.G.B. (2012). Resin Transfer Molding Process: Fundamentals, Numerical Computation and Experiments. In: Delgado, J., de Lima, A., da Silva, M. (eds) Numerical Analysis of Heat and Mass Transfer in Porous Media. Advanced Structured Materials, vol 27. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-30532-0_5

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