RESIN FLOW ANALYSIS DURING FABRICATION OF COCONUT MESOCARP FIBER-REINFORCED COMPOSITES USING VARTM PROCESS

Abstract

Resin transfer molding process (RTM) has recently emerged in liquid composite moulding process (LCM) industry. RTM consists in polymeric resin injection into a closed mold containing a pre-arranged reinforcement material. In this work, the resin flow inside a rectangular mold (310´310´7 mm3) during the fabrication of coconut mesocarp fiber-reinforced composites using vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) was simulated. A computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed in ANSYS® FLUENT using a volume of fluid (VOF) method and Darcy's law. The process was simulated for fiber volumetric fraction (xf) contents of 5%, 10%, 15% and 25%. Results showed that for percentages of reinforcement content higher than 25%, air trapping and incomplete filling of the mold occur. Simulated filling times were in acceptable agreement with the values obtained experimentally.