Simulation of non-isothermal resin transfer molding process cycle and optimization of temperature system

Liu

2019

Self Cite

Heating mold and resin have been widely used in resin transfer molding (RTM) to improve injection and manufacturing efficiency. The unreasonable mold/resin temperatures sometimes lead to excessive viscosity of resin and premature curing, which will result in failure of the filling process. Selection of optimal mold and resin temperature has become a source of concern in the polymer industry. This article presents an optimization method to select mold and injection resin temperatures by using numerical simulation based on chemorheological and exothermal reaction of the RTM process. The results show that the optimization method has high computational efficiency for three-dimensional parts with different shapes. The selected mold/resin temperature ensures the smooth filling process, which provides a powerful tool for parameter design in polymer industry.

Optimization method to select temperature based on chemorheological and exothermal reaction of RTM

Liu

2019

Self Cite

Optimization method to reduce three‐dimensional thermal gradients in resin transfer molding

Liu

2020

Self Cite

Presently, the mold and resin are heated to promote resin flow and shorten curing period in order to improve manufacturing efficiency of resin transfer molding (RTM). This nonisothermal manufacturing process easily generates three-dimensional thermal gradients in the direction of resin flow and thickness of composite part. However, the existing heating systems only consider the thermal gradients along thickness direction. The thermal gradients in direction of resin flow cannot be reduced which will lead to residual stress even deformation and cracking in composite part. This article aims at reducing the three-dimensional thermal gradients in the direction of resin flow and thickness of composite part. Based on the theory of energy and fluid flow, an optimization method of heating system design by using numerical simulation is proposed. The results show this method reduces the three-dimensional thermal gradients effectively in composite part manufactured by RTM process. This study can provide powerful tools for heating system design to manufacture composites products in polymer industry.

Simulation and optimized design of cure cycle for three‐dimensional polymer‐matrix composite component

Zhao

Jia

et al. 2023

Self Cite

The cure cycle plays a crucial role in manufacturing polymer‐matrix composite component. Unreasonable design of cure cycle can easily lead to thermal gradients during curing process, which will generate residual stress and seriously affect the quality of component. Meanwhile, the cure cycle of the three‐dimensional composite component is difficult to optimized, due to the complicated distribution of temperature and curing degree. In this paper, numerical simulation is applied to research the curing process of the polymer‐matrix composite. The change rules of temperature and curing degree are explored. An optimum design method for the cure cycle of three‐dimensional composite component is proposed. Meanwhile, numerical simulation is applied in this method to design the cure cycle by referring to the change rules of temperature and curing degree of the component, in which the internal and external thermal gradients can be balanced during the curing process. The results show that the optimized cure cycle can significantly reduce the thermal gradients for three‐dimensional composite component, which provide guidance for cure cycle design in the manufacturing of polymer‐matrix composite.