MODELLING OF FLOW IN POROUS MEDIA AND RESIN TRANSFER MOULDING USING SMOOTHED PARTICLE HYDRODYNAMICS

A novel numerical method is presented for the simulation of flow in porous media, based on a mesoscopic-scale modelling using smoothed particle hydrodynamics. The method is demonstrated to provide encouraging results for both saturated and unsaturated porous media flow. The Darcy law is confirmed for low drift velocities in a saturated medium, while nonlinear behaviour is observed for higher values. The application of the method to mould filling demonstrates its ability to predict edge effects associated with resin transfer moulding. The time dependence of the computed resin surface for this unsaturated porous medium exhibits good qualitative agreement with experimental results.