TY - JOUR
TI - An improved computational method for non isothermal resin transfer moulding simulation
AU - Saad Aouatif
AU - Echchelh Adil
AU - Hattabi Mohammed
AU - El Ganaoui Mohammed
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2011
VL - 15
IS - 12
SP - 275
EP - 289
PT - Article
AB - The optimization in the simulation time of non-isothermal filling process  without losing effectiveness remains a challenge in the resin transfer  moulding process simulation. We are interested in this work on developing an  improved computational approach based on finite element method coupled with  control volume approach. Simulations can predict the position of the front of  resin flow, pressure and temperature distribution at each time step. Our  optimization approach is first based on the modification of conventional  control volume/finite element method, then on the adaptation of the iterative  algorithm of conjugate gradient to Compressed Sparse Row (CSR) storage  scheme. The approach has been validated by comparison with available results.  The proposed method yielded smoother flow fronts and reduced the error in the  pressure and temperature pattern that plagued the conventional fixed grid  methods. The solution accuracy was considerably higher than that of the  conventional method since we could proceed in the mesh refinement without a  significant increase in the computation time. Various thermal engineering  situations can be simulated by using the developed code.