Fiber Reinforcement Compaction In Resin Injection Pultrusion Process

Resin injection pultrusion is a cost-effective continuous manufacturing process to produce composites of constant cross-section. In this process, fiber reinforcements are continuously pulled through the injection chamber where liquid resin is injected to cause complete wetout of the fibers before exit. The fiber-resin combination obtained from the injection chamber is then cured to obtain the desired pultruded composite. There are various processing and geometric parameters affecting the wetout process. The main objective of this study is to present a numerical model to simulate the resin flow through the fiber reinforcement when compaction of the fibers is also taken into account. This study basically focuses on defining the wetout criteria for a particular set of processing parameters. It also presents the impact of the changes in these processing parameters on the compaction phenomenon as well as the wetout process. The processing parameters modeled in this study are resin viscosity and fiber volume fraction. The effects of independent changes in both these parameters are simulated in this study and a favorable set of working parameters are predicted based on the simulated results. All the results have been presented for non-tapered injection chamber case. Since compaction has also been considered into this simulation, the results presented here are more realistic as compared to the previous works done without considering fiber compaction. Therefore, this study is helpful in explaining the coupling effects of fiber compaction with other processing parameters on the wetout process in the resin injection pultrusion manufacturing of composite materials.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S. in Engineering Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2013

Author dc:creator

• Shakya, Neerad

Contributors dc:contributor

• Jeffrey A. Roux
• James G. Vaughan
• Arunachalam Rajendran

• Compaction
• Composite Materials
• Fibers
• Resin Injection Pultrusion
• Wetout
• Mechanical Engineering

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/683

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-1682