A study on the mold filling process in resin transfer molding

A numerical simulation of the mold filling process during resin transfer molding (RTM) was performed using the boundary element method (BEM). Experimental verification was also done. Darcy's law for anisotropic porous media was employed along with mass conservation to construct the governing differential equation. The resulting potential problem was solved with the boundary element technique. As the calculation domain changed due to the proceeding resin front, boundary nodes were rearranged for each time step. The node which goes out of the calculation domain as time progresses was relocated at the intersection between the solid boundary and the line drawn between the node at previous and at current time steps. Results showed good agreement with data for a rectangular mold. To evaluate further the validity of the model, the area velocity of the resin-impregnated region during mold filling was calculated. The area velocity thus calculated was compared with the corresponding resin inlet velocity to check the mass conservation. A close agreement was observed, which renders confidence in the resin front proceeding algorithm. Numerical calculations were also performed for complicated geometries to illustrate the effectiveness of the current method.