INTERACTIVE SIMULATION OF RESIN TRANSFER MOLDING

A computer code was developed for simulating the resin transfer moldin g process. The unique feature of the code is hat it is interactive suc h that. during the simulation process, the user can (a) change the loc ations of the inlet ports and exhaust vents, and (b) add, remove, open and close ports and vents, and (c) change the inlet pressure of flow rate at the inlet ports. Additionally, the user can ''rewind'' the sim ulator to any previous rime in the mold filling process, make any of t he above changes and then continue the simulation. The computer code h as two main components, the Simulator and the Graphic User Interface ( GUI). The Simulator is a finite element code which calculates the resi n flow, and the temperature, degree of cure and viscosity of the resin inside the fiber preform. The GUI serves as the interface between the user and the Simulator, and is used to provide the commands to the Si mulator and to display the results, Sample results are presented which illustrate the use of the computer code (designated as SUPERTM) in se lecting the port and vent locations, their opening and closing sequenc es such that the fiber preform is filled completely in the shortest ti me.