Polyimide (PMR-15)/fiber composites are important structural component
s in many high temperature applications requiring high performance lig
htweight materials. Most composites are fabricated from ''prepregs,''
but resin transfer molding (RTM) is an alternative route to the format
ion of a resin-saturated preform, further processing of which yields t
he final part. A simple model is proposed for the RTM of ''thin'' comp
osite parts. Numerical solution of the model is accomplished through i
ntegration of the equations formulated using the finite element method
. This approach accounts for the changing shape of the flow front duri
ng RTM. The resulting computational schemes are numerically stable and
efficient.