1 Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering of 52

F. Desplentere
Promotors: I. Verpoest, S. Lomov
Assesors: B. Nicola, D. Vandepitte
29
th
January 2007
Multiscale modelling of stochastic effects
in mould filling simulations for
thermoplastic composites
2 Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering of 52
Textile Composites: Definition+production methods
RTM-process: overview+typical problems+Stochastic factors
Viscosity variation
Geometrical scatter within textiles
Random correlated permeability field
Modelling of stochastic mould filling
Conclusions
Overview
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Textile composites: definition
Matrix
material
Textile
reinforcement
Textile
composite
Thermoset
Thermoplastic
Natural
Biodegradable
Glass fibre
Carbon fibre
Natural fibre
Polymer fibre
= +
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Autoclave
Expensive
Low geometrical complexity
High performance parts
Liquid Composite Moulding
Several variants:Resin Transfer Moulding/Light RTM/VARTM
High geometrical complexity
Expensive tooling
Medium performance: less control on fluid distribution
Recent development: Thermoplastic resin:
e.g. in-situ polymerisation:
Some advantages over thermo set resins
Textile composites: some production techniques
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Liquid Moulding: Resin Transfer Moulding
Different parts + steps
Textile reinforcement
Mould
Resin injection
Curing / Polymerisation
Demoulding
Process description: Darcys law
K = Reinforcement permeability, g: resin viscosity
| ]
p
K
v V =
K
&
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Workflow for current available simulation packages
Finite element mesh
Material properties
Textile reinforcement: K,
Viscosity of the resin
Proces parameters
Inlet + Vents
Pressure drop
Output
Prediction of flow patterns
Pressure distribution
Air entrapments
Simulations for Resin Transfer Moulding
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RTM is interesting production technique as it allows:
Complex part geometries
High rate of automation (labour free)
Good surface quality
But it lacks widely use in industry as:
No rejection rate is allowed in case of high tech expensive
applications
No simulation tool exists to predict process stochasticity
Process stochasticity due to:
Large scatter in material properties
Possible air entrapments
Viscosity variation
Problem statement
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Large scatter is experienced in textile reinforcement
properties
Geometrical properties
Flow properties
Scatter for textile properties
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Possibility for air entrapments
Depends on product shape or mould
Large influence of edge effect (imperfect placing of
textile material)
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RTM with thermoplastic material:
Ring opening of CBT

to PBT
Short time window before polymerisation:
< 5minutes before viscosity > 1Pas
Problem statement
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Different scales in physical phenomena
Meso Macro
Meso
Macro
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AIM of PhD
Define strategy to characterise stochasticity of the textile
reinforcement
Development of models to include stochasticity in RTM
simulation and implementation in software
Setting up viscosity measurement technique for in-situ
polymerising thermoplastic material
Validation with experimental data
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Resin Viscosity
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In-situ polymerisation reaction
Oligomer CBT

+ Catalyst(0.45w%) Thermoplastic PBT

Advantage: Isothermal processing is possible
Viscosity range
Pre-polymer viscosity : 10 mPas< g <50 mPas
Molten thermoplastic viscosity > 1000 Pas
Different types of rheometers necessary
Concentric geometry
Plate plate set-up
Viscosity model
Thermoplastic resin
( )
D
D
D K
.
2
2
0
4 3
1
. . ,
C C
T
C
C
C
e C T
+
]

\
|
]
]

\
|

=
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Oligomer viscosity
Z S
K


=
H D
T e
3
4
( )
D
D
D K
.
2
2
0
4 3
1
. . ,
C C
T
C
C
C
e C T
+
]

\
|
]
]

\
|

=
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Thermoplastic resin viscosity at 190C
( )
D
D
D K
.
2
2
0
4 3
1
. . ,
C C
T
C
C
C
e C T
+
]

\
|
]
]

\
|

=
4
2
R
e T


=
Z S
K
s
. constant
dt
d 1
0012 0 = =
D
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Meso scale stochasticity
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Meso scale geometrical variation
Width of yarns w
Spacing of yarns s
Gap between yarns g
Transformation into Variation for permeability on meso
scale
Permeability governed by gap dimension
Meso scale textile architecture
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Validation of measurement techniques
Surface scanning / Optical microscopy / X-ray micro CT
Surface measurement for 2D
X-ray technique for 3D
Meso scale textile architecture
3D reconstruction of X-ray images
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Gap width distribution (X-ray CT)
Spacing Yarn width Gap width
3568m(2.4%) 3023m(3.6%) 539m(17.5%)
Normal Normal Lognormal
Maximum values
Width CV = 15%,
Spacing CV = 5%
Meso scale textile architecture 3D
=
-
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Gap width distribution (surface scanning)
Average = 510m, CV = 37%
Meso scale textile architecture 2D
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3D textile architecture
CV for width of yarn: 15%
CV for yarn spacing: 5%
Distribution type for gap width: 55%, lognormal
2D textile architecture
CV for gap width: 37%
Meso scale textile architecture variation
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Transformation into meso scale permeability
Geometrical information into permeability information
Monte Carlo modelling of Lattice Boltzmann:
N times (Textile model WiseTex FlowTex ) CV
K
Analytical relation:
R
H
= Hydraulic radius
R K
CV CV
R C K
2
2
=
~
p
x v
K
X
X
A
A
=
K
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Transformation into macro scale permeability
20%
[K. Hoes]
Challenge Macro
Impossible to
measure
Meso
Experimental
CV
Calculated CV Permeability
28%
Monte
Carlo
+
74%
Analytic
relation
+
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( ) ( ) ]

\
|
A + A = A
2
1
2 2 2
1
y x
a
exp x V V
( )
( )
( ) 0 V
x V
x R
A
= A
Properties of a random field
Average value
Standard deviation
Distribution type: normal, lognormal,
Correlation
Dimensions, textile properties should be continuous, no
sudden changes allowed
Example of simple variance function
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Assigning permeability values
Which meso scale level CV for K is needed
to obtain experimental scatter on macro scale?
28 or 74 %
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Definition of master zone
Subdivision of master zone into sub zones (~ 1 unit cell)
Master zone Sub zone
Macro scale Meso scale
Uncorrelated assignment
Assigning permeability values
= problem
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Random assignment
Result is function of sub zone size
Correlation distance 0 is needed
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a = 0.1m a = 0.3m
Generation of correlated random field
Calculation of correlation matrix R
Calculation of covariation matrix V
Cholesky decomposition V = L.L
T
Generate random column Z, average 0, o = 1
Calculate product Y=L.Z
Add average value
( )
]
]

\
| A
= A
a
x
exp x V
2
V
( )
]
]

\
| A
= A
a
x
exp x R
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Transformation into macro scale permeability
20%
[K. Hoes]
Challenge Macro
Impossible to
measure
28 74 % Meso
Experimental
CV
Calculated CV Permeability
Correlation length a
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Determination of correlation length
Based on macro scale information
Gap width along length of 2D woven textile
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Determination of correlation length a
( )
( )
( ) x a exp
x V
x R A =
A
= A
2
V
Fitting of correlation data
Estimation of Variance + Correlation
( ) ( ) | ] ( ) | ] X z i z X X z X
M
z i V
j
z i M
j
j
A + = A

A
=1
1
( )
( )
( ) 0 V

z i V

z i R

A
= A
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Transformation into correlated permeability
Generation of correlated gap width values
Coefficient of variation 37% (for 2D gap width)
Number of models: 100
Total length 500mm
Correlation length a =10mm
Building 100 WiseTex models
Calculating for each unit cell the permeability
Correlation of gap width
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Transformation into correlated permeability
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Correlation length for permeability
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Intermediate conclusions
Link between correlation length for geometry and
permeability
Method to implement correlated random field for
permeability is developed
Next steps
Comparison of simulation results with experiments for only
available stochastic data on macro scale
Application on real part geometry
ty permeabili geometry
a a = 2
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Stochastic simulation
Monte Carlo: N times (150)
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Stochastic simulation: different steps
Reading externally created FE model
Assigning boundary conditions
Assigning stochastic parameters
Average/standard deviation/correlation length for each master
zone
Viscosity as function of time or time and temperature
Solving the N (Monte Carlo) files
Generation of results
Average filling time
Standard deviation for filling time
Number of times an element is not filled
Macro scale permeability
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Description of experimental results
> 80 measurements for same textile reinforcement
(4 layers of textile)
Highly automated setup to find in plane permeability
Result is averaged all over the mould with different sensors
Macro scale
CV = 20%
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Case study 1:simulations
Central injection setup similar to the experiment
1 master zone = 1 set of average data
Subdivision into sub zones
Correlated permeability field in 2 directions
no correlation between different directions
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Case study 1: Flow patterns:stochastic realisations
Flow fronts at certain times = isochrones
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Stochastic results for filling time
Standard deviation Coefficient of variation
(Absolute information) (Relative information)
25%
67%
104%
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Case study 1: simulation results
Post-processing of simulation results to find macro scale K
Sensor strategy to find average macro scale K values
Fitting of ellipses onto the different flow fronts as function of time
No difference between both techniques
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Link between meso and macro CV
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Transformation into macro scale permeability
20%
[K. Hoes]
5 13 % Macro
Impossible to
measure
28 74 % Meso
Experimental
CV
Calculated CV Permeability
Correlation length a
?
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Influence of correlation length
High meso scale CV needed to end up with reasonable macro
scale CV
In modelling, only one layer of reinforcement considered
Stochastic modelling can be used for any mould filling problem!
120
%
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Application to real problem: Case study 2
RTM with race tracking: 2 master zones
Race tracking channel
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Case study 2: deterministic case
No problem at all: no air entrapments
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Case study 2: stochastic results
Possible regions
for air entrapment
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Conclusions
Measurement technique is developed to measure viscosity of
highly reactive resins
Use of random correlated field is proposed and validated for
permeability values
Technique is developed to find scatter + correlation for permeability
2 Permeability CV = Geometrical CV
Stochastics are implemented as add-on for PAM-RTM software
High meso scale CV needed to end up with reasonable macro scale CV
Stochastic modelling approaches the scatter level observed in experiments
In modelling, only one layer of reinforcement considered
Stochastic simulation reveals the sensitivity of the process to the
race tracking, not seen in a deterministic simulation
In future, additional investigation of the correlation function and
length is needed together with the distribution type for K.
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Acknowledgements
KHBO for funding the whole PhD study
Amiterm project partners for supplying the
thermoplastic material
Colleagues in Ostend
Colleagues in Leuven
Technicians
Family and friends