Modelling of hydro-mechanical coupling in infusion processes

The demand for composite parts is constantly increasing particularly in the aeronautic industry. The infusion process has been developed to be a cost-effective technique for the fabrication of large and complex composite structures. This process has been identified as an alternative to the resin transfer moulding (RTM) as well as the conventional autoclave prepreg technique. Unlike in the RTM process, a strong hydro-mechanical coupling between resin flow and reinforcement deformation takes place in infusion processes. In this work, a numerical model to simulate the hydro-mechanical coupling in infusion processes is proposed. Based on this model, a numerical code was developed. A new experimental device for hydro-mechanical coupling was developed and a validation of the hydro-mechanical model was carried out by comparing our experimental and numerical results. In every case, a good agreement was observed. The numerical code was applied to simulate the infusion process by calculating the maximum height infused by the resin, the final height of the part and the infusion time.