Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of the Spray Process of Resin Over a Laid Up Fiber Stack for the Purpose of Fiber Impregnation and Composite Materials Manufacturing

Composite materials are group of engineering materials which are combinations of more than one material type with the intention of getting specific material properties. The components of the composite may be metals, ceramics, plastic or other materials. The manufacturing methods of composite materials especially fiber reinforced plastics requires combining two or more materials in defined orientation. Among the different fiber reinforced plastic composites manufacturing methods hand layup method comprises 22% and exclusively implemented in developing countries. Other advanced manufacturing methods such as resin transfer molding, compression molding and auto calve require high capital and technical expertise. It is possible to say all the manufacturing methods have their own limitations. Resin spray over a laid up fiber stack is first phase of a new manufacturing setup which will be followed by pressure compaction. In this paper the spray process is modeled using computational fluid dynamics in 3D spray region of size 30 × 30 × 60. In the modeling spray characteristics of the fairly viscous unsaturated polyester resin using different nozzle types have been analyzed. The result shows only few types of nozzles are capable of spraying the 0.3 kg/m-s viscosity liquid with fairly good area and distance of coverage. In the case of pressure swirls atomizer about 30 cm distance from the atomizer results a fairly uniform distribution.