THERMAL BEHAVIORS OF THE RESIN AND MOLD IN THE PROCESS OF RESIN TRANSFER MOLDING

The manufacture of polymer composites through the process of the resin transfer molding (RTM) involves the impregnation of the reactive poly mer resin into a mold with preplaced fibrous reinforcements. Determina tion of RTM processing conditions requires the understanding of variou s parameters, such as material properties, mold geometry, and mold fil ling conditions. Modeling of the entire RTM process provides a tool fo r analyzing the relationship of the important parameters. This study d eveloped a nonisothermal simulation model to simulate the thermal beha viors of the resin and mold during the resin transfer molding process based on the control volume finite element method. The model will be a ble to simulate the thermal and chemical changes of the resin and the thermal variations of the mold during the filling and curing stages. T hermal effect of the epoxy mold was shown to have large influence on t he temperature distribution and curing process of the resin. Results o f some numerical studies in RTM show the applications of the proposed model.