Simulating Liquid Composite Moulding for the manufature of complex composite structures

Liquid Composite Moulding (LCM) with fabric reinforcement material allows complex composite structures to be manufactured at reduced costs, compared with traditional autoclave methods. A Complete Process Model (CPM) has been... [ view full abstract ]

Liquid Composite Moulding (LCM) with fabric reinforcement material allows complex composite structures to be manufactured at reduced costs, compared with traditional autoclave methods. A Complete Process Model (CPM) has been developed to simulate LCM processes for further waste and cost reductions, and process optimisation. This work focusses specifically on the relationship between fabric draping and resin infusion, since permeability properties in textile materials are deformation-dependent.
Tensile, shear and permeability properties have been characterised for an aerospace grade, carbon fibre, plain weave material, in order to support draping and infusion simulations within the CPM. Full-scale, double dome, Vacuum Infusion (VI) experiments were conducted to validate the CPM.
Excellent draping agreement has been observed, along with a good simulation of infusion behaviour. By accounting for deformation-dependent flow behaviour, the CPM has been able to achieve better correlation than the basic traditional models that use uniform permeability properties. This work serves as a good demonstration of the CPM potential, and also proposes a number of future improvements.