RISK REDUCTION VIA VIRTUAL FLOW SIMULATION IN MANUFACTURING OF SANDWICH PANELS USING VARTM PROCESS

摘要

Flow Modeling and virtual flow simulation were used during the prototyping stage of a large composite structure to optimize the processing setup of the Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) process. The study characterized the material properties including the permeability values of various reinforcements, conducted optimization of core channel geometry using the Liquid Injection Molding Simulation (LIMS) package developed at the University of Delaware and validated the predictions experimentally. Various resin delivery approaches were designed, simulated and experimentally tested to explore complete wet-out of the sandwich structures through the distribution media on one surface only. Before scale-up, a finite element model for the entire part was created and the flow behavior in the complete structure was simulated and analyzed. Finally, the part was manufactured with a novel and robust injection approach uncovered by the virtual simulation results.