Simulation of liquid composite moulding using a finite volume scheme and the level-set method

Abstract

In this paper, a 2D numerical framework for the simulation of flows in porous media that are characterised by a sharp transition between the saturated and unsaturated zone is presented. Using a finite volume scheme and the level-set method, the framework is derived based on a conventional, implicit solution of Darcy's law for the pressure field, while the level-set function is advected explicitly locally at the flow front. With the main application to liquid composite moulding (LCM) in mind, the numerical framework is verified against analytical solutions, experiments, and other benchmark cases for a variety of situations that occur in this composite manufacturing process. The cases include local changes in permeability related to edge-effects, merging of flow fronts, and continuous manufacturing processes. It is highlighted that the numerical framework achieves convergence with a spatial accuracy between 1 st and 2 nd -order; the level-set operations only take about 20% of the total CPU time; and the propagation of the resin front can be achieved with CFL-sized time steps without overfilling cells and without applying any artificial smoothing.

Permeability and compaction behaviour of air-texturised glass fibre rovings: A characterisation study

“…By designing a layup of appropriate fibre architectures, engineers can time the impregnation step to a suitable process window. In pultrusion, which belongs to the family of LCM processes, a layup can consist of rovings of fibres [1][2][3][4] . Here, instead of controlling the local permeability by selecting special types of fabrics or mats, permeability can be altered by applying texturisation to rovings.…”

“…In pultrusion, which belongs to the family of LCM processes, a layup can consist of rovings of fibres. [1][2][3][4] Here, instead of controlling the local permeability by selecting special types of fabrics or mats, permeability can be altered by applying texturisation to rovings. Air-texturised rovings can also be combined with matrix-forming filaments to form a commingled yarn, braided into technical fabrics, or directly enter the fibre layup in other continuous composite manufacturing processes.…”

Cost-efficient, automated, and sustainable composite profile manufacture: A review of the state of the art, innovations, and future of pultrusion technologies

“…Over the last 50 years, more than 1400 papers have been published in scientific journals and conference proceedings about pultrusion 3 , which includes theoretical and experimental studies of various thermoset resin systems [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40], thermoplastics [20,22,24,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49], as well as alternative and renewable materials and reinforcements [50][51][52][53][54]. For resin-injection pultrusion, in particular, where analyses of the impregnation flow is essential to ensure saturation [15,[38][39][40]55,56], studies have considered geometrical configurations of the injection chamber [57][58][59][60][61] as well as other process parameters such as the profile-advancing pulling speed [62], resin viscosity [63], and fibre permeability [64]. Using thermo-chemical-mechanical analyses, numerous studies have also looked into process-induced stresses and deformation of thermoset pultrusion…”

Steady-state modelling and analysis of process-induced stress and deformation in thermoset pultrusion processes

“…Heat-transfer analysis, which is the starting point for a TCM model, has been conducted numerically and experimentally of pultrusion processes by several researchers in literature. Examples can be found for the conventional resin-bath pultrusion processes (RBP) [20][21][22][23][24][25], resin-injection pultrusion processes [26][27][28][29][30], pultrusion of thermoplastic pre-impregnated materials [31,32], and out-of-die UV-cured pultrusion processes [33][34][35].…”