Comparison of the VOF and FE/CV methods applied to RTM problems

Abstract

The resin transfer molding (RTM) process is largely used for the production of polymeric composites in a variety of shapes and sizes. In RTM, a resin is injected into a closed mold filled with a fibrous reinforcement media. There are many variations of the traditional RTM process, including RTM-light and VARTM. The numerical simulation plays an important role in the study and development of this process, including the prediciton of the resin flow-front behavior inside the mold cavity, allowing the identification of undesired non-wetted regions and also the most suitable positons for the inlet and outlet gates. With numerical modeling, it is possible, for example, to reduce mold design costs by reducing the number of necessary laboratory experiments. The numerical modeling is based on the solution of a set of differential equations that describe the physical problem. In the present work, the use of the VOF (Volume of Fluid) and FE/CV (Finite Element/Control Volume) methods to the RTM problem is presented and discussed. Comparison between the two methods was carried out by using two commercial applications FLUENT® and PAM-RTM®. Good agreement between the numerical results and the experimental data was observed for all simulated cases.