Process Control for Resin Transfer Molding

Resin transfer modling (RTM) offers many advantages over hadn lay-up of prepreg or wet filament winding in the production of advanced composites. Successful application of RTM requires complete resin infiltration of the molded dry fiber preform. Uncertainty in the resin infiltration process due to variance in preform permeabilities has resulted in long process development cycles. High rejection rates, and reduced scope of part configurations that can be processed using RTM. THis project will examine methods for in-situ monitoring, and control of resin flow will be developed and feasibility of the techniques will be demonstrated.