Computational Modelling of Resin Flow During Composite

Manufacture Processing Using VAM

Jobin K J
b
and Dineshkumar Harursampath
b*

a
NMCAD Lab, Aerospace Department, IISc Bangalore, India
b
NMCAD Lab, Aerospace Department, IISc Bangalore, India

1. INTRODUCTION & METHODOLOGY
Resin flow is a very important aspect in the design of composite manufacturing process. It is the
primary mechanism through which excess resin is removed, voids are eliminated and the desired
fiber volume fraction is obtained. But controlling the resin flow is not very trivial since it
depends highly on process parameters such as temperature, pressure and reaction kinetics. A
good model of resin flow during curing of composite can reduce the time and cost of
manufacturing and optimize the process cycle for improved quality composites.
Variational Asymptotic Method (VAM) is a well-established computational method for
analyzing composite structures such as beams and shells [1]. The advantage of VAM is that it
doesnt use any ad-hoc assumptions during formulation. Also a dimensional reduction is
achieved but not compromising on the accuracy of results. This improves the computation time
of VAM based formulations enormously. Since VAM is an asymptotically correct method, the
formulation can be done according to the requirement in the order of accuracy, which makes it a
computationally efficient tool.
This work is an attempt to extend the method of VAM, which is prominently used in
modeling structural behavior of beams and shell to modeling resin flow during composite
manufacturing process and thus come with an efficient and accurate model for process
parameters. Squeezed sponge theory is used to describe resin flow and fiber compaction, which
Li et al. [2] has used in their work. The fiber bed is assumed to be a porous medium and
deformable with elastic properties. The flow of the resin with respect to the fiber bed obeys
Darcy law. At any time, the external applied pressure is balanced by elastic deformation of fiber
bed and hydraulic pressure of resin. A transient analysis of the process where the properties of
the resin change with the process parameters is considered.
In the formulation using VAM, the first step is deriving the potential function, which can
describe the mechanics of the system completely. In normal structural problems, strain energy is
used to describe the mechanics. Since in this problem, the mechanics is governed by elastic fiber
bed and resin flow, the potential function is a combination of total strain energy of fiber bed and
fluid potential. Next step is the reduction of this potential function depending on the requirement
on order of accuracy. New governing equations and boundary conditions are derived from the
reduced potential function using calculus of variations. Newly developed governing equations
and variationally consistent boundary conditions are used to solve the unknown parameters in the
entire domain. The theory developed is classified as first order, second order etc. based on the
order of accuracy considered during the formulation.

*
Further author information: (Send correspondence to Dineshkumar Harusampath.)
Jobin K J: E-mail: jobinkj91@gmail.com
Dineshkumar Harusampath: E-mail: dinesh@aero.iisc.ernet.in, Website: http://www.aero.iisc.ernet.in/users/dinesh/
2. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The complete formulation of modeling includes, derivation of potential function, order
estimation of terms in potential function, reduction of potential function, derivation of governing
equations & boundary conditions and numerical evaluation of the parameters in the domain of
interest. Detailed formulation of the potential function, which describes the elastic deformation
of fiber bed and the fluid motion of the resin flow governed by Darcy flow will be produced in
the full length paper. The order of estimation of terms and first order approximation of potential
function will be shown. Detailed Variational formulation and derivation of governing equations
and boundary conditions from the first order approximated potential function will be produced in
the full length paper. The first order solution will be obtained by solving the governing equations
and boundary conditions. The comparison of results from first order theory will be made with the
results from literature.
REFERENCES

1. Hodges, D. (2006). Nonlinear composite beam theory. 1st ed. Reston, Va.: American Institute of Aeronautics
and Astronautics.
2. Li, Y., Li, M., Gu, Y. and Zhang, Z. (2011). Numerical and experimental study of the bleeder flow in
autoclave process. Applied Composite Materials, 18(4), pp.327--336.