V ol. 16　 N o.

4 　　　　　　　　　　　　 CHIN ES E J OU R N A L O F A ER ON A U T ICS 　 　　　　　　　　　　　　 November 2003

Non-isothermal Mol d Fill ing and Curing Simulation

for Resin Transfer Molding
1 1, 2 1 3
CHEN Ren -liang , GUI Bing , LI Ming -cheng , L IANG Zhi-yong
( 1. College of A eronautics & A str onautics, N anj ing Univer sity of A er onautics & A stronaut ics,
N anj ing　210016, China)
( 2. Dep art ment of M athmatics , N anj ing Forest Univer sity , N anj ing 　210018, China)
( 3. College of M aterial & Engineer ing, Beij ing University of A eronautics & A stronautics,
Beij ing　100083, China)

Abstract: 　 A num er ical model of 2. 5D no n-isot her mal resin transfer molding simulation is dev el-
oped for thin part based on the contr ol volume/ finite elem ent method. T he non-unifor m temperature
distr ibution and the heat gener ation during the filling stag e ar e modeled w ith the lumped temperature
sy stem and the species balance. N umer ical algo rithm of the simulation are studied. T he molding sim-
ulat ion for a part is per formed to show the ef fectiv eness of simulating filling time, temperature distr i-
bution and curing degr ee.
Key words: 　r esin t ransfer molding ; finite-element analy sis; mathematical model; numerical simula-
tion
树脂传递 成型工艺中树脂流动 和凝固过 程的非等温 仿真. 陈仁良, 桂冰, 李明成, 梁志勇. 中国航
空学报( 英文版) , 2003, 16( 4) : 247- 252.
摘　要: 采用 控制体/ 有 限元方法 建立了模拟 树脂传递 成型工艺制 造薄壁零 件时树脂流 动和凝固
过程的2. 5维 非等温仿真数学模型, 该模型运用纤维 、
树脂的能 量平衡和树脂凝固 的质量平衡方程
模拟树脂流动和凝固过程中的 热量传递和温度变化 过程, 研究 了树脂传递成型工 艺过程中树脂流
动、温度变化及 树脂凝固的 数值求解 方法, 算 例结果表 明所提出的 仿真模型 能有效地模 拟树脂传
递成型工艺过程中树脂流动、温度变化及树脂凝固程度。
关键词: 树脂传递成型; 有限元分析; 数学模型; 数值仿真
文章编号: 1000-9361( 2003) 04-0247-06　　　中图分类号: V 211. 3　　　文献标识码: A

　　 Resin T ransf er M olding ( RT M ) has becom e
an at tract ive method in w hich liquid react ant cures
in a mold with fabric reinforcement t o produce a
composite part . Int erest in t hese technologies has
grow n dram at ically , spurred by the milit ary 's need
for af fordabilit y and high performance and t he auto
industry' s em phasis on hig her product iv it y and
low er-v olum e m arket niches.
T here are so many technical issues concerned
[ 1-3]
w it h RT M processes . Because of t he anisot rop-
ic nat ure of t he reinforcement fibers, the flow pat-
tern in the mold can be very complicat ed. Cure of
resins ut ilizes heat to cause a crosslinking react ion .
T he rate of t he react ion is dependent on t he t em-
perature and ext ent of resin conversion. Heat gen-
eration and t ransfer can result in a non-unif orm
t emperat ure distribution in t he m old .
Ow ing to the int eraction of diff erent variables
and t he complexity of the process, m old and pro-
cess desig n are current ly conducted using t rial and
error. Experiment al met hods f or opt imization of
mold and process desig n may be t oo t ime consum-
ing and economically prohibit ive. A compute nu-
merical simulation m odel capable of predicting resin
flow behavior, pressure gradient inside the mold,
and curing process is needed t o opt imize injection

Received dat e: 2003-01-09; R evision received dat e: 2003-07-09

A rt icle U RL: ht t p: / / ww w . hkx b. n et . cn/ cja/ 2003/ 04/ 0247/
 ・ 248・ CHEN R en-lian g , G U I Bing , LI M ing -cheng , LIA N G Zh i-yong CJA

port posit ions, inject ion pressure, f illing t ime, pared wit h the dominant v iscous force.
temperat ure , and curing degree. Under these assumptions, Darcy' s law for
A num ber of studies have developed non- flow t hrough porous media can be used as the mo-
isot hermal f low m odels w it h a heat t ransfer mod- mentum equation.
[ 4-9]
el . T hese models are coupled by t he fluid vis- K
v= - P ( 1)
cosit y , which is the f unct ion of both t em perature
and cure conversion . How ever , most of t hem are w here v is t he velocit y vect or, P is the pressure
concentrated on t w o-dim ensional by sim plify ing gradient , is the viscosit y, and K is the perme-
the heat transfer form . In t he act ual case, t he abilit y t ensor . F or the part w it h small t hickness,
therm al ef fect s are three -dim ensional and require t he f low can be m odeled as t wo-dimensional flow
three-dimensional analysis. T here are some studies P
vx 1 K xx Kxy x
on t he non-isot hermal RT M mold f illing and cur- = - ( 2)
vy K yx K yy P
ing processing w ith true three -dimensional analy- y
[ 10-13]
sis . Unfortunately , the huge comput at ion w here v x , v y are t he flow v elocit y component s and
time limits its applicat ion . Moreover , t hree-dimen- K ij ( i, j = x , y ) is the component of t he perme-
sional model makes t he numerical algorithm more abilit y t ensor def ined in t he tw o -dimensional Cart e-
complicat ed. sian coordinate syst em .
In order t o improve the t w o -dim ensional mod- For an incompressible f luid, the continuit y e-
el and avoid t he huge com put at ion time and numer- quation is
ical algorit hm dif ficult y in the t hree-dimensional vx vy
model, a 2. 5D simulat ion RT M non-isot hermal x + y = 0 ( 3)

model is proposed for thin part in this paper . T he 　　Eq. ( 2) and ( 3) are combined and int egrated
meaning of 2. 5D is t hat the flow is 2D w hile t he over a cont rol volume to have
heat transf er is 3D. In t his 2. 5D model, the f low P
is determined by Darcy' s law and t he heat transf er 1 Kxx K xy x
[ nx 　ny ] ds = 0 ( 4)
and resin reaction are developed based on t he S Kyx K yy P
y
lumped t em perature syst em ( i. e. local thermal e-
w here nx , ny are t he components of the vector nor-
quilibrium bet ween resin and f iber ) . T he cont rol
mal to the surface of t he int egrated volume.
volume / finite elem ent met hod ( CV / FEM ) is used
In RT M process, if the t emperat ure is as-
to solve t he dist ribut ions of pressure, t em perature
sumed t o be in local equilibrium at any specific t im e
and curing degree during the RT M processing .
due t o its slow filling speed ( i. e. , the t em perature
1　Simulation Scheme is t he same f or both resin fluid and f iber mat at
each local posit ion ) , the equat ions of energ y and
1. 1　Governing equations
species balance can be ex pressed as
In order t o simulat e t he mold f illing process of
T
+ r Cpr - !H m ( 5)
2
RT M , several assum pt ions must be made to sim- Cp v T = k T +
t
plif y the problem. In g eneral, t he fiber reinf orce- ∀ -
v
+ ∀= m ( 6)
ment in the mold cavit y is assumed t o be rigid dur- t
ing t he molding process. T here is no ex change of w here T is the t emperat ure, ∀is the resin conver-
mass bet w een the solid and t he fluid. T he f luid is sion , m is the m ass generat ion rat e, is the f iber
considered as incom pressible and it s viscosit y is in- mat porosit y and !H is the volumet ric heat gener-
dependent of shear rate ( i. e. , t he f luid is New to- at ion per unit volume. T he lumped thermal param-
nian ) . Inert ia ef fect is neglect ed because of t he low et ers are defined as
resin flow . Surface tension is neglig ible as com- = ( f r) / ( f w r + r wf)
 Non-isot hermal M old Filling and Curing S imulat ion
N ovember 2003 ・ 249・
for Resin T ransf er M olding

cp = cprw r + cpf w f umes enclosing t he inlet nodes. For t he case of t he

k = ( kr k f ) / ( kr w f + k f w r ) specif ied injecting pressure , a specif ied pressure is
1- assigned t o t he inlet nodes. F or the out lets, t he
wr = +
f f r pressure depends on the f illing condition. If t he
wf = 1 - wr vacuum is used during mold f illing , the out let pres-
w here is t he density , cp is the specific heat coeff i- sure is equal to t he vacuum pressure ; otherw ise ,
cient and k is t he t hermal conductivit y . T he sub- t he out let pressure is zero.
scripts r and f denot e resin and fiber respect ively . 1. 3　Computation schemes
1. 2　Boundary conditions Eqs. ( 4) -( 6) are the governing f ormulations
T he boundary condit ions f or equat ion 4 of non-isot hermal mold processes. T he solut ion of
throug h 6 are as follow s t hem requires t he use of a num erical method to
At t he f low f ront find the dist ribut ion of pressure , temperat ure and
P= 0 resin conversion w ithin t he filled domain . CV /
FEM has m any advant ag es in solving the moving
k T = (1 - ) f cpf v n( T f0 - T )
n fron t boundary problems .
[ 5, 8, 9]

D / ,
In t he CV FEM t he ent ire calculat ion do-
( F ∀) = Fm
Dt main is f irst divided int o a num ber of element s.
　　w here F is t he resin volume fraction of a con- T he cont rol volum e is f orm ed based on t he nodes
trol volume. of t he adjacent element s. Each element is divided
At t he inlet gat e int o several sub-areas by t he lines connecting t he
( a ) F or t he constant pressure m old filling cent roid of t he element t o t he midpoint / cent er of
P = P 0 , T = T res in , and ∀= 0 each side/ surface. A control volume is composed of
　　( b ) F or the constant f low rat e mold f illing several sub-area / volumes , w hich have a comm on
P node at the cent er of the control volume . Fig . 1 is
1 x K xx K x y x
[ n 　ny ] ds = - Q t he t ypical cont rol volume distribut ion.
S K yx K yy P
y
T = T resin, ∀= 0
At mold boundaries
P 　　　 ( a) T riangle
n = 0, T = T
wall ( b ) T riangle and quar drang le
Fig . 1　 T ypical control volume distr ibutio n
w here Q is t he volume inject ing rat e at t he inlet
For 2. 5 D non-isotherm al case, the heat
gate, T f0 is t he initial fiber t emperat ure t hat is t he
t ransfer must be solv ed in t hree dimensions. T hus
sam e as t he mold w all t emperature T w all and T r esin is
t he cavity should be discretised t hroug h t he t hick-
the init ial resin temperat ure. At the flow f ront ,
ness, w hich involves sub-dividing each cont rol vol-
the param et er F represent s t he st at us of each con-
ume defined for t he flow analysis int o a number of
trol volume in the flow domain. F is zero for an
layers. T he energy balance is t hen carried out
em pty control v olum e, w hile it is 1 for an entirely
w it hin each of these sub-domains. T he lay ers
filled cont rol volum e. F or a part ially f illed cont rol
t hroug h the t hickness can be div ided w ith collocat e
volume, F is equal to the volume fraction occupied [ 14]
method .
by the resin. Pressure is assumed vanished at t he
Fig . 2 shows the diagram of comput ation
flow f ront w here t he t em perature and conversion
schemes f or 2. 5D non-isothermal RT M simulation
follow t he energy and m ass balance of a cont rol
based on CV/ FEM . At the beg inning of mold fill-
mass. F or t he case of specified inject ing f low rate,
ing, the sim ulat ion program assumes that the con-
a specified f low rat e is assigned to the control vol-
 ・ 250・ CHEN R en-lian g , G U I Bing , LI M ing -cheng , LIA N G Zh i-yong CJA

used in t he numerical m odel to improve the com pu-

tational accuracy of t em perature and conversion
w it h reasonable Courant Number [ 2] . T his sub-t im e
t echnique can ensure t he solutions t o be as accurat e
as possible , althoug h t he truncat ion error is still
very diff icult t o cont rol because of t he vary ing
mesh sizes in the model.

2　Case Study and Discussion

A part in reference [ 9] is taken t o demon-
strate t he use of t he m et hod described above. Fig-
ure 3 show s the finite element s generated by PA-
T RAN soft w are at the mid -plane of the part. T he
geom et ry of t he part includes a circular cut-out
w it h resin inject ed through a 20 mm diamet er inlet
F ig . 2　T he diag ram of computation schemes port . T able 1 and 2 list the m at erial data and
trol volumes enclosing the inlet nodes are f illed molding parameters f or sim ulat ion.
w it h fluid. T hen, w it h the boundary conditions
ment ioned earlier and t he assum ed viscosit y , t he
pressure calculation is conduct ed to det erm ine t he
pressures of nodes t hat are current ly f illed w ith flu-
id. Aft er the pressure f ield is det ermined, t he ve-
locit y f ield can be evaluat ed according to Darcy' s
law . T hen, the tem perature and conversion can be F ig . 3 　 F inite element mesh at the mid -plane of the
solved by t he same w ay as the pressure based on part
Tabl e 1　Material data
the current velocit y f ield . T he result ing tempera-
Resin Fiber
tures and conversions are used t o com put e t he up-
/ ( kg m - 3 ) 1120 2540
date viscosity . New values of viscosit y are used to
cp / ( J ( kg K ) - 1 ) 1400 840
calculat e t he pressure f ield again, w hich leads to k/ ( W ( m K ) - 1 ) 0. 13 0. 1/ 0. 01
the same calculation procedure . !H / ( J m - 3 ) 2. 5768×108
0. 7
T he Courant Number in t he above num erical
K / m2 1. 0×10- 8
scheme is used in t he improvement of convergence
Table 2　Molding parameters
and accuracy of t he solut ion . T he convergence
In ject ion rate ( const ant ) / ( m 3 s- 1 ) 6. 5×10- 5

problem com es f rom the convect ion t erms in equa- Cavit y t hickness/ mm 3
tions ( 5) and ( 6) . In order to reduce the diver- Resin inlet temperat ure/ K 310
In it ial perf orm t emperat ure/ K 350
gence, t he convect ion t erms of t he tw o equations
M old surf ace t emperat ure/ K 370
are evaluated using the upw ind scheme . T he up-
wind scheme adds a num erical diff usion t erm t o t he 　　T he react ion rat e is

syst em and reduces t he inst abilit y. How ever, it in- f ( ∀, T ) = 300ex p - 3277 ( 1 - ∀) 2
T
creases t he truncat ion errors. T he t runcat ion er-
　　T he relat ionship among resin viscosity , t em-
rors may result in a m eaningless solution even
perature and deg ree of conversion used is
thoug h the scheme is stable. T hey are sensit ive to 4

the f low velocit y, mesh size and time step if t he = 2. 56 × 10- 21 exp 1. 45 × 10
T
flow is convection dom inant. A sub -t im e st ep is
 Non-isot hermal M old Filling and Curing S imulat ion
N ovember 2003 ・ 251・
for Resin T ransf er M olding

exp 0. 695 - 1. 502

0. 487 - ∀
　　F ig. 4( a) show s t he predict ed flow patt ern.
In t his figure, t he initial radial flow quickly be-
comes rectilinear unt il t he cut-out is reached. Once
the flow passes t he cut -out the tw o f low front s
merg e, af ter w hich the flow becomes rect ilinear a-
gain. T he tot al fill time f or t his case is approx i-
mately 3. 8 seconds. F ig . 5( b ) is the f low pat ter in ( b ) T emperature field in reference [ 9]
ref erence [ 9] . It can be found t hat t he predicted Fig . 5　T emper atur e field
flow patt ern is in a good agreement wit h t hose in
ref erence [ 9] . T he dif ference in f illing t im e comes
from t he f act t hat the model in ref erence [ 9] does
not consider t he in-plane heat conduction w hich af-
fects the resin viscosit y.

( a) P redicted conv ersion field

( a) P redicted flow pat ter n and filling time

( b) Conversion field in reference [ 9]

( b) F low pat ter n and filling time fr om r efer ence [ 9]
Fig. 4　 Flow pattern and filling time
F ig . 5 ( a ) and 6 ( a) are t he dist ribut ions of
predicted t em perature and cure convect ion f or t he
( a) P redicted temper atur e field
Fig. 6　F low pattern and filling time
layer located betw een t he m old surface and t he
mid-plane, F or t his part icular case, t he m ax imum
degree of conversion is 0. 0752, occurring at t he
locat ion furthest from t he inject ion gat e ( w here t he
resin has the great est residence time ) . m id -plane .
For t his particular case , t he maximum T his value
is sig nificant ly low er than t he resin gel point of
0. 487, w hich indicat es that the heat t ransf er dur-
ing the f illing stage is caused mainly by t he convec-
tion. T he t emperat ure at each locat ion decreases
aft er t he cold resin t ouches t he hot f iber . Aft er t he
resin m oves f orw ard, colder resin arrives w hich re-
sultes in low er temperat ure, but still higher than
t hat at t he inject ion port , at t his locat ion . As a re-
 ・ 252・ CHEN R en-lian g , G U I Bing , LI M ing -cheng , LIA N G Zh i-yong
sult, the tem perature show s a gradual increase as
the f illing t ime increases in t he w hole f illing do-
main.
Fig. 5( b) and 6( b) are the temperat ure and
conversion f ield at the sam e layer made by ref er-
ence [ 9] . T here is a good agreement bet w een
them . T he diff erence bet w een them also com es
from t he ef fect of in-plane heat conduct ion.
3　Conclusion
A 2. 5 D non-isot hermal RT M simulat ion
model is developed f or the thin part based on t he
CV / FEM . T he lumped temperat ure system and
the species balance are used in m odeling t he non-u-
niform t em perature dist ribution and the heat gen-
eration during filling st age . T he converg ence and
accuracy of numerical schemes are st udied and sim-
ulat ion f or a part is performed. Compared w it h 2D
model, 2. 5D model do aff ect the f low patt ern , fill-
ing t ime , dist ributions of temperat ure and cure
conversion in RT M process.
T o v erif y the process model, ex periment al
w ork is needed. Result s from t he ex periment al
study and the comparison w ith t he num erical simu-
lation are t he f ut ure st udy in t his area.
References
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Biographies:
CHEN Ren -liang　 Bor n in 1963, he received B . S . , M . S .
and P h . D . in aircraft desig n from Nanjing A eronautical
Institute in 1985, 1988 and 1998. Fro m 2000 to 2002, he
w orked as post -do cto ral in the field of RT M simulation at
Florida Composite Center fo r A dvanced T echno log ies
( FC 2 A T ) of U SA . Sev er al scient ific papers have been pub-
lished in var ious periodicals . T el : ( 025 ) 4892141,
4892152, E -mail : crlae@ nuaa . edu . cn
GUI Bin 　 Born in 1958, she received M . S . in co mputa-
tion mathemat ics fr om Nanjing Aer onautical Inst itut e in
1988. She is the associate pr ofesso r in N anjing For est U ni-
versity and the candidate Ph . D. student in co mputation
mathematics at N anjing U niv ersity of A eronautics & As-
tronautics. T el: ( 025) 3735120
LI Ming-cheng　 Bor n in 1957, he r eceiv ed M . S . in me-
chanics fr om N anjing A ero nautical Institute in 1988. He is
the associate pr ocessor of m echanics in Nanjing U niv er sit y
of A er onautics & A stro nautics T el: ( 025 ) 4892231,
4892152.