Transient filling simulations in unidirectional fibrous porous media
Hai Long Liu, Wook Ryol Hwang · 2009
The incomplete saturation and the void formation during the resin infiltration into fibrous porous media in the resin transfer molding process cause failure in the final product during its service. In order to better understand flow behavior during the filling process, a finite-element scheme for transient flow simulation across the micro-structured fibrous media is developed in the present work. A volume-of- fluid (VOF) method has been incorporated in the Eulerian frame to capture the evolution of flow front and the vertical periodic boundary condition has been combined to avoid unwanted wall effect. In the microscale sim-ulation, we investigated the transient filling process in various fiber structures and discussed the mechanism leading to the flow fingering in the case of random fiber distribution. Effects of the filling pressure, the shear-thinning behavior of fluid and the volume fraction on the flow front have been investigated for both intra-tow and the inter-tow flows in dual-scale fiber tow models.