• Composites Research
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.363-372
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• 2013

Numerical simulation for Resin Transfer Molding manufacturing process is attempted by using the eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) combined with the level set method. XFEM allows to obtaining a good numerical precision of the pressure near the resin flow front, where its gradient is discontinuous. The enriched shape functions of XFEM are derived by using the level set values so as to correctly describe the interpolation with the resin flow front. In addition, the level set method is used to transport the resin flow front at each time step during the mold filling. The level set values are calculated by an implicit characteristic Galerkin FEM. The multi-frontal solver of IPSAP is adopted to solve the system. This work is validated by comparing the obtained results with analytic solutions. Moreover, a localization method of XFEM and level set method is proposed to increase the computing efficiency. The computation domain is reduced to the small region near the resin flow front. Therefore, the total computing time is strongly reduced by it. The efficiency test is made with a simple channel flow model. Several application examples are analyzed to demonstrate ability of this method.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.202-208
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• 2017

Resin transfer molding (RTM) is a mass production process that allows the fabrication of composites ranging in size from small to large. Recently, fast curing resins with a curing time of less than about 10 minutes have been used in the automotive and aerospace industries. The viscosity of resin is bound up with the degree of cure, and it can be changed rapidly in the fast-cure resin system during the mold filling process. Therefore, it is advantageous to experimentally measure and evaluate the degree of cure because it requires much effort to predict the flow characteristics and cure of the fast curing resin. DMA and dielectric technique are the typical methods to measure the degree of cure of composite materials. In this paper, the resin flow and degree of cure were measured through the multi-channel dielectric system. A total of 8 channels of dielectric sensors were used and resin flow and degree of cure were measured and compared with each other under various pressure conditions.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2008

The objective of this work is to propose a procedure to simulate the flow in the LCM (Liquid Composites Molding) processes by finite difference discretization in a curvilinear coordinate system adapted to the shape of the saturated zone. The numerical results obtained are compared with experimental results obtained by an experimental device elaborated at our laboratory. It allows to realize linear and radial injections for different porosities and to observe the flow front kinetics. Numerical and experimental results are then compared with those of the literatures and excellent agreements are noticed. Finally, we suggest a concept of the capillary number to explain the variations of the permeability obtained for pressure values lower than 0.25 Bar.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.10 s.293
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• pp.607-612
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• 2006

In VARTM (Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding) process, the permeability generally controls the filling time of the resin and it also affects the void characteristics of the fiber composite. In this study, carbon and glass fiber inter-layered hybrid composites (carbon fiber centered stack) with an epoxy matrix were fabricated by VARTM process and evaluated the resin flow and macro void characteristics. The permeability of glass fiber was higher than that of carbon fiber used in this study. Using Darcy's equation, the permeability of hybrid composites could be predicted and experimentally confirmed. After curing, the macro void content of hybrid composites was investigated using image analyzer. The calculated filling time was well agreed with experimental result and the void content was significantly changed in hybrid composites.

• The Korean Journal of Rheology
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.85-92
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• 1993

수지이동 성형공정에서 수지가 섬유직조망에 함침될 때의 투과계수와 수지의 표면 장력으로 인하여 유동진전면에서 발생하는 모세관압을 실험적으로 측정하였다. 두 종류의 섬유조직망에 대해서 가공율이 증가함에 따라투과계수는 증가한다. 수지, 섬유 그리고 공기 가 서로 다른 세 개의 상을 구성함으로써 수지의 표면장력의 영향을 받는 비정상상태의 투 과계수가 수지의 섬유직조망에 포화된 정상상태에서 측정된 투과계수보다 본 실험에서 수행 된 모든 기공을 범위에서 크다는 것을 보여주었다. 수지 유동진전면에서 발생되는 모세관압 은 기공율이 감소함에 따라 증가하였고 섬유직 조망의 기공율이 0.469인 경우에는 금형입구 에서의 수지주입압력의 25%에 해당되는 모세관압이 발생되는 것으로 나타났다. 따라서 모 세관압을 가공조건으로 고려해다 한다는 것을 제시할수 있었다. 또한 본연구에서 사용된 임 의 배향 섬유직조망에 대해 실리콘 오일과 유리섬유 계면의 동적접촉각 측정을 통하여 섬유 배향 및 기공의 분포를 나타내는 형상인자의 값을 구함으로써 실제 RTM 공정에서 발생되 는 모세관압을 예측할 수 dLT는 기초자료를 제시하였다.

• Composites Research
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.340-347
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• 2015

As resin impregnates through the fiber preform in vacuum assisted resin transfer molding process, the volume of fibers is changed by expansion of fiber mat according to filling time. It causes not only the change in dimension but also the decrease of mechanical properties of the composite product. Moreover, it results in the economic loss by increase of the used amount of resin especially in the large product such as wind turbine blade. In this study, the ways to control fiber volume fraction were investigated by both the experimental and theoretical analyses on the expansion of fiber preform as the preform was impregnated by resin in the VARTM process. Two kinds of swelling stage were observed as flow front progressed, which was analyzed by comparing the experimental and simulation results. The process parameters are expected to be optimized by investigating the swelling behavior of fiber preform in the manufacturing process of the composite product.

• Composites Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.169-174
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• 2017

Demand of glass fiber reinforced composites (GFRC) increased with developing aircraft and defense industries using resin transfer molding (RTM) process to produce complex product. In this research, wetting, interfacial, and mechanical properties were evaluated with different Cross-linking Density by Molecular Weight of Hardener. Epoxy resin as matrices was used bisphenol-A type and amine-type hardeners with different molecular weight. Specimens were manufactured via RTM and wetting property of resin and glass fiber (GF) mat was evaluated to viscosity of epoxy and injection time of epoxy matrix. Mechanical property of GFRC was determined via flexural strength whereas interfacial properties were determined by interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) and interfacial shear strength (IFSS). The difference in mechanical property depends upon the fiber weight fraction (wt %) of GFRC by RTM as well as the different Molecular Weight of Hardener.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.189-192
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• 2002

The autoclave process is frequently utilized in the manufacturing of aircraft parts because of the low void content and high fiber volume fraction. However, due to the slow curing process (5∼8 hours per part) and it's limited producibility for complicated shape, this process is very expensive and applied to the relatively simple geometry structures. RTM is considered as an alternative process to overcome the limitation of autoclave process. In this study, the idea of RTM application on the secondary Fairing structure of aircraft has been proved to be technically feasible and very cost effective by changing the multiple part of subassembly into one integral composite structure.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.604-610
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• 2007

Injection molding is the most common method of shaping plastic resins for manufacturing a variety of parts. This injection molding is accomplished by injection molding machines (IMM) which consists of a hewer, a reciprocating screw, barrel assembly, and an injection nozzle. The plastic resin is fed to the machine through the hopper and it should be heated to the target melting temperature, which depends on material properties, as closely as possible with very small temperature overshoot in the barrel. Since the barrel, which has temperature dependent specific heat and thermal conductivity in the operating temperature range, is heated by the several electric heater bands, it is not an easy task to control the temperature of the barrel owing to the interference of neighboring heaters and its material properties. Though PID controller with auto-tuning capability is widely adopted in the nm, the auto-tuning process should be carried out whenever the operating temperature is changed significantly. Recently, though the predictive controller is developed and shows good performance, it has drawbacks: 1. Since the heat transfer modeling process is very complicated and should be carried out again when the barrel is changed, it is somewhat inappropriate in the field. 2. The controller performance is not validated in whole operating temperature range. In this paper, cascade type simple PI controller with input restriction is proposed to find the possibility of controlling the barrel temperature in the whole operating temperature range. It is shown by experiment that the proposed controller shows good performance. This result can be applied to design of PI controller with auto-tuning capability.

• Transactions of Materials Processing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.101-106
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• 2015

Recently, silicone is being used for LED chip lens due to its good thermal stability and optical transmittance. In order to predict residual stresses, which cause optical birefringence and mechanical warpage of silicone, a finite element analysis was conducted for the curing of silicone during molding. For the analysis of the curing process, a dynamic cure kinetics model was derived based on the results of a differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) testing and applied to the material properties for finite element analysis. Finite element simulation results showed that a step cure cycle reduced abrupt reaction heat and showed a decrease in the residual stresses.