MODELING NONISOTHERMAL IMPREGNATION OF FIBROUS MEDIA WITH REACTIVE POLYMER RESIN

The manufacture of polymer composites through resin transfer molding (RTM) or structural reaction injection molding (SRIM) involves the impregnation of a fibrous reinforcement in a mold cavity with a reactive polymer resin. The design of RTM and SRIM operations requires an understanding of the various parameters, such as materials properties, mold geometry, and mold filling conditions, that affect the resin impregnation process. Modeling provides a potential tool for analyzing the relationships among the important parameters. The present work provides the physical model and finite element formulations for simulating the mold filling stage. Resin flow through the fibers is modeled using two-dimensional Darcian flow. Simultaneous resin reaction and heat transfer among resin, mold walls, and fibers are considered in the model. The proposed technique emphasizes the use of the least squares finite element method to solve the convection dominated mass and energy equations for the resin. Excellent numerical stability of the proposed technique provides a powerful numerical method for the modeling of polymer processing systems characterized by convection dominated transport equations. Results from example numerical studies for SRIM of polyurethane/glass fiber composites were presented to illustrate the application of the proposed model and numerical scheme.