ISOTHERMAL RTM SIMULATION OF GFRP PARTS FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS

摘要

The application of liquid composite molding technology allows the integrated production of sandwich parts with fiber reinforced cover sheets. In order to optimize the production of such composite parts in terms of robustness and cost-efficiency, process simulation techniques have been applied. As a matter of example, experiments for a single skin and a sandwich composite part for an automotive application have been carried out to evaluate the advancement of the flow front in the mould. For the validation of the software the form filling process has been simulated under consideration of local effects, i.e. edge effects, changes of porosity. In a second step the validation work allowed a successful optimization of the tool cavity and the LCM process layout for a new part. The current paper reveals the potential of FE based simulation of LCM processes. For Alusuisse AIREX, as a leading manufacturer of composite parts for automotive and mass transportation applications, the results of numerical simulation are of major importance, since it can lead to a significant increase in product quality and to a reduction of manufacturing cycle time.