Modeling of injected pultrusion processes: A numerical approach

Abstract

Injected pultrusion (IP) is an attractive process for high volume, high performance, and low cost manufacture of continuous fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites. In this work we focus our attention on development of a computer simulation model for the IP process. First, the governing equations for conservation of mass, momentum, and energy are developed using a local volume averaging approach. In turn, a computer simulation model of the IP process is developed using finite element/control volume (FE/CV) and finite difference techniques. Specifically, the equation of continuity and conservation of momentum are solved in 2-D using a Galerkin FE/CV technique. The energy and chemical species balance equations are solved in 3-D. where slnarnhn ' e upwind Petrov-Galerkin (SUPG) or slnarnhn ' e upwind (Sv) FE/CV are used to discretize the equations in two dimensions while finite differences have been used in the third dimension. The chemical species balance equation is solved in the Lagrangian frame of reference using finite differences. Different numerical formulations (Galerkin, , SU, and SUPG) are used to solve a number of benchmark problems to determine the best numerical formulation. It is shown that for coarse discretization, Streamline Upwind methods perform consistently better than the other methods. However, for refined meshes, the Lagrangian method produces the best solution for a given CPU time. Also, using the simulation model, the effect of fiber pull speed, reinforcement anistropy, and taper of the die on the quality of the product is studied. It is shown that the simulation model can be effectively used to design the die geometry as well as to optimize the operating conditions for a given product. *

Iterative and transient numerical models for flow simulation of injection pultrusion

“…These include the experimental work conducted at the University of Mississippi [1], the University of Minnesota [2] and the University of Lowell [3] respectively, and the numerical flow models developed at Washington University [4,5], the Ohio State University [6,7] and the Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Composite Structures (CRC-ACS) [8,9], respectively. Most of the flow models developed, including those described in Refs.…”

“…Most of the flow models developed, including those described in Refs. [4][5][6]8], have adopted the transient formulation similar to that for RTM simulation by which the full evolution of the resin flow front is modelled.…”

Effect of Resin Viscosity in Fiber Reinforcement Compaction in Resin Injection Pultrusion Process

“…There are various geometric and processing parameters affecting the wetout process. The research contained in [1] through [14] has studied various aspects of the pultrusion manufacturing process and has recommended ways to improve pultrusion; however none have [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] considered fiber compaction due to the resin injection pressure. Some of the research has investigated fiber compaction behavior due to static compressive forces which helped in building up the basis for the present study.…”

Multiple Injection Ports and Part Thickness Impact on Wetout of High Pull Speed Resin Injection Pultrusion

“…Voorakaranam et al [10] presented a 2D model to simulate resin flow, cure, and heat transfer. The impact of multiple axial injection slots and composite part thickness for a tapered injection chamber was not presented in the above studies [6,7,9,10]. In their previous work [11], the authors of this study investigated the nontapered injection chamber; this study shows the impact of tapering the injection chamber on the injection pressure needed to achieve wetout as well as the associated chamber exit pressure.…”