Simulating the resin flow and stress distributions on mold tools during compression resin transfer molding

Compression resin transfer molding (CRTM) is an effective process for the manufacturing of composite parts with large size and high fiber content. The analysis of the resin flow and stress distributions can only be performed by directly solving the coupled flow/deformation equations, but it is difficult to handle the complicated preform deformation models and geometry models; therefore, the simulation precision and application range are extremely limited. In this paper, an alternative approach is introduced to overcome the above problems, in which the preform deformation and the accompanying resin release during the secondary compaction phase are calculated in an additional element associated with each unit of the discretized model geometry instead of solving the coupled governing equations directly, so the complex compaction models can be adopted. Three simulation examples are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and capability of the above numerical approach on velocity-controlled, force-controlled 3D CRTM processes.