Simulation of the resin infiltration in fiber bundles using the Lattice Boltzmann Method

• Main Authors: Wei-KaiYang, 楊爲凱
• Other Authors: Wen-Bin Young
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2017
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/sc6e63

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 航空太空工程學系 === 105 === Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) is a method for manufacturing polymer composite. The RTM process involves the resin injection into a mold cavity to infiltrate the fibers while the air is discharged from the outlet. Since the flow behavior of the resin infiltration in fibers is the key factor affecting the quality of the fabricated composite. In this thesis, we applied the Lattice Boltzmann method with single-component pseudo-potential model and single-phase free surface model to simulate the flow of resin infiltration in and between fiber bundles. This method is simpler than the traditional computational fluid dynamics method in simulating the free surface flow with surface tension. Because of the diversity of the fiber bundle shape and arrangement, we chose the circular and elliptical shapes to model fiber bundles in the simulations in order to reduce the amount of calculation. According to the fiber bundle arrangement and resin flow direction, it is divided into six models. The flow behavior of the resin injection and the possibility of bubble formation among those models were investigated by changing the factors as the resin and fiber contact angle, injection speed, fiber bundle spacing, fiber bundle arrangement, and the gaps between fibers. This method used in this thesis successfully modeled the actual surface tension of epoxy resin, and simulated the flow behavior of the resin infiltration in fibers, which was also demonstrated to predict the possibility of air bubble formation in the fiber network during the filling process.