New Remeshing Applications in Resin Transfer Molding
S. Soukane*
F. Trochu
Centre de Recherches Appliquées Sur les Polymères
(CRASP), Département de Génie, Mécanique,
École Polytechnique de l'Université de Montréal, H3C
3A7, Canada
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
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Abstract |
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As resin transfer molding (RTM) is being increasingly used to manufacture
composite parts, there is a strong interest to understand the basic physical phenomena
that occur at each stage of the process. Modeling and simulation play an important role
in the development and optimization of molds production and in devising appropriate
resin injection strategies. In general, process simulation requires preprocessing to be
carried out carefully to conduct successful, reliable, and reasonably fast calculations.
However, it can be time consuming at the early stages of mold design to run several
simulations with minor changes only in the geometrical model or in the mesh in order to
optimize the mold or some given operating conditions. Unfortunately, in that case the
entire mesh has usually to be regenerated. This paper presents applications of a
remeshing algorithm to RTM flow simulation. It illustrates how remeshing techniques can
be used to enhance the automatic meshing capability by including injection ports and
channels along the mold boundaries or along the interior injection lines. Remeshing can
also be used to smooth the resin front during mold filling. In the latter case, mesh
refinement is based on the flow front without attempting to minimize computational
error. By adapting the mesh anisotropy to the flow front during mold filling, the shape
of the advancing flow front can be more closely approximated. The first part of this
paper describes the remeshing algorithm and the associated anisotropic metric. Then,
several examples of metrics are given to provide guidelines for application engineers
and illustrate their practical implementation. After introducing the RTM process and
recalling the basic equations that govern mold filling, local remeshing of injection
ports and runners are presented, followed by the application that minimizes front smearing.
Key Words:
RTM simulation, mesh refinement
