Materials 2012, 5(7), 1285-1296; doi:10.3390/ma5071285
Article

Resin Flow Behavior Simulation of Grooved Foam Sandwich Composites with the Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion (VARI) Molding Process

Chenhui Zhao 1,* email, Guangcheng Zhang 1 email and Yibo Wu 2
1 School of Natural and Applied Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China 2 Luoyang Ship Material Research Institute, Luoyang 471023, China
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 23 May 2012; in revised form: 18 June 2012 / Accepted: 19 July 2012 / Published: 23 July 2012
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Abstract: The resin flow behavior in the vacuum assisted resin infusion molding process (VARI) of foam sandwich composites was studied by both visualization flow experiments and computer simulation. Both experimental and simulation results show that: the distribution medium (DM) leads to a shorter molding filling time in grooved foam sandwich composites via the VARI process, and the mold filling time is linearly reduced with the increase of the ratio of DM/Preform. Patterns of the resin sources have a significant influence on the resin filling time. The filling time of center source is shorter than that of edge pattern. Point pattern results in longer filling time than of linear source. Short edge/center patterns need a longer time to fill the mould compared with Long edge/center sources.
Keywords: VARI; foam sandwich; foam grooves; resin flow behavior; simulation

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Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Zhao, C.; Zhang, G.; Wu, Y. Resin Flow Behavior Simulation of Grooved Foam Sandwich Composites with the Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion (VARI) Molding Process. Materials 2012, 5, 1285-1296.

AMA Style

Zhao C, Zhang G, Wu Y. Resin Flow Behavior Simulation of Grooved Foam Sandwich Composites with the Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion (VARI) Molding Process. Materials. 2012; 5(7):1285-1296.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Zhao, Chenhui; Zhang, Guangcheng; Wu, Yibo. 2012. "Resin Flow Behavior Simulation of Grooved Foam Sandwich Composites with the Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion (VARI) Molding Process." Materials 5, no. 7: 1285-1296.

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