Alotaibi, H. orcid.org/0000-0003-1262-2491, Abeykoon, C. orcid.org/0000-0002-6797-776X, Soutis, C. orcid.org/0000-0002-1402-9838 et al. (1 more author) (Cover date: November 2022) Numerical Simulation of Two-Phase Flow in Liquid Composite Moulding Using VOF-Based Implicit Time-Stepping Scheme. Journal of Composites Science, 6 (11). 330. ISSN 2504-477X
Abstract
The filling stage in injection/infusion moulding processes plays a key role in composite manufacturing that can be influenced by the inlet and vent ports. This will affect the production of void-free parts and the desirable process time. Flow control is usually required in experiments to optimise such a stage; however, numerical simulations can be alternatively used to predict manufacturing-induced deficiencies and potentially remove them in the actual experiments. This study uses ANSYS Fluent software to model flow-front advancement during the impregnation of woven fabrics. A developed technique is applied by creating tracking points (e.g., on-line monitor) in the direction of the flow to report/collect data for flow-front positions as a function of time. The study adopts the FVM-VOF-based two-phase flow model together with an implicit time-stepping scheme, i.e., a dual-time formulation solution method with a preconditioned pseudo-time derivative. Initially, three time-step sizes, 5 s (small), 25 s, and 50 s (large), are evaluated to examine their impact on numerical saturation lines at various fabric porosities, 40%, 50%, and 60%, for a two-dimensional (2D) rectangular mould, and predictions are then compared with the well-known analytical Darcy. This is followed by a three-dimensional (3D) curved mould for a fillet L-shaped structure, wherein the degree-of-curvature of fibre preforms is incorporated using a User-Defined Function (UDF) to tailor the impregnation process. The developed approach shows its validation (1–5.7%) with theoretical calculations and experimental data for 2D and 3D cases, respectively. The results also stress that a shorter computational time can be achieved with a large time-step size while maintaining the same level of accuracy.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). |
Keywords: | liquid composite moulding; flow visualisation; numerical modelling; Volume of Fluid (VOF); multi-phase model |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mechanical Engineering (Leeds) > Institute of Engineering Thermofluids, Surfaces & Interfaces (iETSI) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 22 Aug 2023 15:38 |
Last Modified: | 22 Aug 2023 15:39 |
Published Version: | https://www.mdpi.com/2504-477X/6/11/330 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | MDPI |
Identification Number: | 10.3390/jcs6110330 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:202540 |