Simulation of non-isothermal resin transfer molding process cycle and optimization of temperature system

The filling and curing stage of resin transfer molding is non-isothermal. The temperature plays an important role in both filling and curing stage and these two stages are strongly interrelated. The unreasonable temperature system will lead to excessive temperature difference and seriously affect the quality of the product. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the non-isothermal filling and curing stage to find the best temperature system. In this paper, the FLUENT software has been secondarily developed to perform a full three-dimensional simulation of the non-isothermal resin transfer molding process cycle. The results have been compared with the known data to verify the accuracy of the simulation. The influence of temperature on the process cycle has been analyzed and the optimization of temperature system can reduce process cycle time and increase the uniformity of temperature distribution.