Abstract
Modeling and simulation play an important role in the optimization of composite design and manufacturing. When composite parts are fabricated by resin injection through fibrous reinforcements, the filling stage plays a critical role in process optimization, Due to its transient nature, modeling of mold filling is classically approximated by quasi-steady flows at incremental time steps. This approach is very time consuming in terms of computer time. The coupling of such methods with iterative optimizeis increases so much the computational effort that the problem becomes almost unfeasible. In order to reduce the time required to simulate mold filling, a finite element formulation of a "one shot" algorithm, previously developed (I], is described. One a typical mesh, the approach speeds up the computation by a factor of over 2000 and returns the total filling time as well as information on the last region to be filled. In order to speed-up mold design, a new concept of "mold coefficient" (Me) is introduced. This latter will be used to compare different mold designs with even less computational effort that required by the one-shot implementation. Finally, the validity of the mold coefficient and its use will be demonstrated for a complex part.