Fiber mat deformation in liquid composite molding. II: Modeling

Abstract

Abstract Mathematical models are proposed to simulate the flow induced fiber mat deformation during liquid composite molding. The fiber bed is treated as an elastic beam and the load acting on the bed causes its deformation. The lubrication approximation is used to simplify the resin flow equation in the fiber free region, while Darcy's law is used to calculate the pressure and velocity fields in the deformed fiber bed. The governing equations are solved using the control volume/finite element method. The numerical results show reasonable agreement with the experimental results from Part I.