• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Technology of Plasticity Conference
• /
• 2003.05a
• /
• pp.461-464
• /
• 2003

A new control volume finite element method is proposed for three dimensional analysis of polymer flow. Tetrahedral finite element is employed and co-located interpolation procedure for pressure and velocity is implemented. Inclusion of pressure gradient term in the velocity shape functions prevents the checkerboard pressure field from being developed. Vectorial nature of pressure gradient is considered in the velocity shape function so that velocity profile in the limit of very small Reynolds number becomes physically meaningful. The proposed method was verified through three dimensional simulation of pipe flow problem for Newtonian and power-law fluid. Calculated pressure and velocity field showed an excellent agreement with analytic solutions for pressure and velocity. Driven-cavity problem, which is reported to yield checkerboard pressure filed when conventional finite element method is applied, could be solved without yielding checkerboard pressure field when the proposed control volume finite element method was applied. The proposed method could be successfully applied to the three dimensional mold filling problem.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
• /
• 2003.04a
• /
• pp.184-187
• /
• 2003

Complete prediction of second order permeability tensor for three dimensional circular braided preform is critical to understand the resin transfer molding process of composites. The permeability can be predicted by considering resin flow through the multi-axial fiber structure. In this study, permeability tensor for a 3-D circular braided preform is calculated by solving a boundary problem of a periodic unit cell. Flow field through the unit cell is obtained by using a 3-D finite volume method (FVM) and Darcy's law is utilized to obtain permeability tensor. Flow analysis for two cases that a fiber tow is regarded as impermeable solid and permeable porous medium is carried out respectively. It is found that the flow within the intra-tow region of the braided preform is negligible if inter-tow porosity is relatively high but the flow through the tow must be considered when the porosity is low. To avoid checkerboard pressure field and improve the efficiency of numerical computation, a new interpolation function for velocity variation is proposed on the basis of analytic solutions. Permeability of the braided preform is measured through a radial flow experiment and compared with the permeability predicted numerically.