ABSTRACT Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) process is commonly used to produce high quality polymeric composites with simple or complex geometries in small to large sizes. In RTM process a preformed reinforcement is positioned inside the mold cavity. This dry reinforcement is actually a fibrous porous media whereby resin will flow. The mold is then closed and resin is injected. After complete impregnation of the reinforcement, resin cure process takes place. Numerical simulation is a very useful tool for mold design and process optimization, however resin and reinforced medium physical properties must be precisely determined. Medium permeability is probably the most important and most difficult parameter to be evaluated. In this work it is proposed a numerical/experimental methodology to determine transverse permeability in reinforcements used within RTM process. PAM-RTM software was chosen to simulate resin flow through the reinforced medium. Proposed methodology uses the inverse parameter estimation method to calculate the unknown permeability. Newton-Raphson method was used to solve the associated algebraic equation system, on which PAM-RTM software is used to calculate resin injection times. Results have shown that with previous knowledge (taken from literature or obtained experimentally) of the in-plane permeabilities ( Kxx and Kyy ), physical properties of the resin (ρ, µ), medium porosity (ε) and total filling time (t) it is possible to estimate transverse permeability in thick pieces. It was also performed a numerical study about the influence of transverse permeability in resin flow inside the mold. This study predicted several possible problems that may occur when transverse permeability is much smaller than in-plane permeabilities. Finally, it is possible to state that mold design and proper fibrous reinforcement choice can be optimized when numerical techniques are used.

Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) is largely used for the manufacturing of high-quality composite components and the key stage during processing is the resin infiltration. The complete understanding of this phenomenon is of utmost importance for efficient mold construction and the fast production of high quality components. This paper investigates the resin flow phenomenon within the mold. A computational application was developed to track the resin flow-front position, which uses a finite volume method to determine the pressure field and a FAN (Flow Analysis Network) technique to track the flow front. The mass conservation problem observed with traditional FE-CV (Finite Element-Control Volume) methods is also investigated and the use of a finite volume method to minimize this inconsistency is proposed. Three proposed case studies are used to validate the methodology by direct comparison with analytical and a commercial software solutions. The results show that the proposed methodology is highly efficient to determine the resin flow front, showing an improvement regarding mass conservation across volumes.

Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) is a polymer composite processing technique widely used in the aeronautics and automotive sectors. This paper describes the numerical simulation of the RTM process where Darcy's law was used for the mathematical formulation of the problem. A control volume finite element method was used for the determination of pressure gradients inside the mold, and a geometric reconstruction algorithm is used for the resin flow-front determination. Permeability of the medium was considered either a constant or a two dimensional tensor. The application was validated by direct comparison with literature data and good qualitative and quantitative agreement was obtained. The finite volume method was built to be used with a two-dimensional unstructured grid, hence allowing the analysis of complex geometries. The results showed that the proposed methodology is fully capable of predicting resin flow advancement in a multi-layer (with distinct physical properties) reinforced media.