Inverse problems in resin transfer molding

The mathematical theory of inverse problems deals with parameter identifica tion in quantitative models. Applied to resin transfer molding, inverse pro blems are concerned with the determination of permeability, viscosity, poro sity, conductivity and flow resistance from experimental or process data. W hile general inverse problems need sophisticated numerics, our work tries t o classify those inverse problems in resin transfer molding where the param eters can be calculated analytically or with very little numerical effort. Formulas for the calculation of pointwise or mean values of constant, piece wise constant or general continuous RTM parameters result. In particular, w e show how "smooth" information on RTM parameters can be obtained from pres sure and inflow rate data using numerical differentiation and least squares filtering of the data.