Applications of Front Tracking to the Simulation of Resin Transfer Molding

Resin Transfer Molding, as a method for the manufacture of advanced ber reinforced composite materials, is attractive because it ooers the possibility of lower manufacturing costs and more complex shapes than the traditional manufacturing methods. A major issue in this new manufacturing process is the elimination of void spaces in the resin ll operation, so that products with high quality are manufactured. In this paper we present a two phase, two component air solubility model to study the formation and migration of the macro and micro voids. The numerical solutions of the model are obtained through a front tracking code. The front tracking method has the distinguishing feature of preserving sharp interfaces throughout the simulation. The results demonstrate that the model proposed here has desirable qualitative agreement with experimental results. Based on these results, we make numerical predictions to show how modeling could improve the manufacturing process and hence enhance product quality.