An ICME Approach to Performance Prediction of Composites Manufactured Using Resin Transfer Molding

摘要

The focus of this paper is to develop an integrated multi-physics and multiscale modeling framework to predict process-induced dimensional change of compositeparts manufactured using the Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) technique. The Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) approach is adopted to link the constituent materials properties to the resulting composite performance throughphysics-based process models across multiple length scales. The proposed integrated modeling tool encompasses a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based resininfusion model, a coupled flow compaction model, and a Finite Element Analysis(FEA) based thermo-viscoelastic residual stress model at the micro- and macro-scales. A novel numerical scheme is developed to couple the CFD and FEA simulations to understand (1) how the deformation of the fabric affects the flow front during the resin infusion process and (2) how the infusion process affects the subsequent curingprocess and the resulting composite performance. The process-induced dimensionalchange of an RTM curved flange is used as a representative example to demonstratethe predictive capability of the proposed modeling toolkit. A closed loop fromprocessing to performance evaluation established from the integrated toolkit can pave the way for process optimization to achieve specified design objectives.