Analysis of the Edge Effect on Flow Patterns in Liquid Composites Molding

In liquid composites molding, the cutting of the fiber preform is often not sufficiently precise leaving a small clearance between the reinforcement and the mold edges. This clearance creates a preferential flow path for the resin which may disrupt the filling of the mold cavity. Experience has shown that even a small clearance of 1 or 2 mm could have a significant effect, especially if the preform has a high fiber content. A model is thus needed to predict this channeling effect in order to take it into account in computer simulations of the mold filling process.This paper presents a model to describe this phenomenon. The idea is to characterize simultaneously the flow in the channel and through the reinforcement. The model is derived using Navier–Stokes equations in the open channel and Darcy's law in the porous preform. From this model, an equivalent porous medium was defined for which an equivalent permeability tensor can be computed as a function of the channel geometry. Numerical simulations performed with the computer software RTMFLOT developed in our laboratory have shown that in some limit cases, i.e., a large channel (5–6 mm) or for very low porosity reinforcements, the transverse flow from the channel to the preform can be neglected in the model while still obtaining quite a good prediction of the flow edge effect. In other cases, however, namely for a clearance of intermediate size (2–3 mm) which is the most common case in RTM, or for a higher porosity of the reinforcement, the transverse flow from the channel to the rest of the preform must be taken into account. Experimental data to validate the proposed model are also presented.