Infusing Lightweight Composite Structures

The INFUCOMP project is a multidisciplinary research project to develop necessary CAE tools for all stages of the LRI manufacturing process. The main objective of the European Research Consortium is to develop liquid composites molding (LCM) for the aeronautic sector. For the project, researchers em...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inNASA Tech Briefs p. 20
Main Authors Marquette, Pierre, Dereims, Arnaud, Hugon, Michael, Esnault, Guenael, Pickett, Anthony, Karagiannis, Dimitrios, Gkinosatis, Apostolos
Format Trade Publication Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York Associated Business Publications 01.12.2014
Subjects
Experiments
Manufacturing
Permeability
Rheology
Sensors
Simulation
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Summary:The INFUCOMP project is a multidisciplinary research project to develop necessary CAE tools for all stages of the LRI manufacturing process. The main objective of the European Research Consortium is to develop liquid composites molding (LCM) for the aeronautic sector. For the project, researchers employed the DiAMon Flow monitoring system developed by Integrated Aerospace Sciences Corp, which combines flow, thermal, and cure monitoring as part of an integrated sensor comprising electric contact pairs, an inter-digitized micro capacitor, and a thermocouple. The approach adopted by INFUCOMP researchers overcomes this limitation by using the viscosity at a reference temperature as a state variable instead of the degree of cure. The reference viscosity follows its own kinetics. Simulation results were in agreement with experiments and found to be valuable to understand and validate the infusion process. The results also help researchers to understand the simulation workflow and methodology as well as the monitoring capabilities.
ISSN:0145-319X
2474-8498