Vacuum Infusion is a manufacturing technique that uses vacuum pressure to drive resin into a laminate, allowing a more even spread of resin throughout the laminate, and ensures that no excess resin (which adds weight and is quite brittle when dry) remains to weaken the material. It is a cleaner process, as workers do not have to directly apply the resin using brushes or rollers as in previous techniques, thus reducing exposure to resin fumes and creating a safer workplace. Despite these advantages, acceptance of the technique in Australia has been slow, one reason for this being the high risks involved in trial-and-error experimental use of the technique.
Controlled Vacuum Infusion (CVI) is a technology which allows vacuum infusion to be simulated using Finite Element Methods (FEM). This enables the user to simulate trial injections in order to determine the optimal distribution and quantity of resin inlets and branching tubes before manufacturing, thus avoiding costly mistakes.
Creative Advanced Build (CAB), a Toowoomba-based company specialising in the development, design and manufacturing of structural components and systems from advanced fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) materials, are collaborating with CESRC at the University of Southern Queensland on a QCIF-funded Technology Diffusion, to apply new manufacturing technologies such as CVI. This will demonstrate the value of computational tools in product development at CAB. The introduction of computational modelling and simulation into the engineering of CAB products is expected to lead to superior products, and dramatically speed up the R&D and product development process.
The initial stage of the project is focused on the use of these technologies to structurally analyse and optimise the design and manufacturing process of a 13-metre fibre reinforced plastic (FRP) houseboat.
Researchers at CESRC have worked on importing models of the houseboat from CAD into Polyworx for use in simulations. An example of a clean Polyworx model used for the CVI simulations is shown in Figure 1.
|
|
|
Figure 1: A clean Polyworx model
used to carry out controlled vacuum infusion. |
Once the model has been imported into Polyworx, the effects on the infusion process of material parameters such as fibre permeability and resin viscosity and temperature, as well as injection parameters such as the position of injection and venting ports and size and position of runners may be studied. Figures 2 and 3 show typical CVI simulation results.
 |
 |
| Figure 2: The progress of resin flow into the mould in a typical CIV simulation | Figure 3: Velocity vectors of the resin flow field in a typical CIV simulation. |
Upon optimisation of the design process, the finite element software ABAQUS will be used to analyse the structural behaviour of the boat under operational static and dynamic loading cases.
Once the houseboat is thoroughly modelled, analysed and optimised, and the manufacturing process simulated and optimised, CAB will manufacture the product to validate the development process. Structural samples will also be manufactured by the same process using the same materials for testing to determine the mechanical properties of the final product. Tests will done in USQ laboratories.
Participants
Professor T. Tran-Cong, Dr A. Khennane
Computational Engineering and Science Research Centre (CESRC),
University of Southern Queensland
Industry Participant
Reports
Final Report (July 2007)
(5MB PDF)
Progress Report (March
2007) (188 KB PDF)
Progress Report (November 2006) (2.2 MB PDF)
Progress Report (August 2006)
(1.44 MB PDF)
Progress Report (May 2006)
(44 KB PDF)
Project Proposal
(160 KB PDF)