Applications of front tracking to the simulation of resin transfer molding

Resin Transfer Molding, as a method for the manufacture of advanced fiber reinforced composite materials, is attractive because it offers 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 fill 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.