Grooved Type Vartm Process Optimization Based On Genetic Algorithm Design

VARTM (Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding) is a low cost liquid composite molding process. In this paper, the optimization design of the resin system suitable for VARTM and grooves' parameters such as: width, depth and spacing of grooves for VARTM process based on grooves was studied, and optimization procedures were composed by means of GA theory.According to the requirement of resin system for VARTM process, E51 epoxy resin was chosen as matrix resin, and proceed to fixing two kinds of curing agents,of which one is TY-300 and the other is TM and 501 active dilute. The preliminary range of components were aquired by taking advangtage of theretic caculating equations for quantities of curing agents. The experimental plan was setted by uniform design method, and the regression equations like viscidity, processing window, tensile strength and flexural strength was got as GA's target function, the optimized results are as follows: temperature of resin is 39℃, mass portion of TY-300 is 8, mass portion of TM is 11, mass portion of 501 is 11.The filling time was due to the groove's parameters of VARTM process based on grooves, so target function was established by equivalent infiltrate rate and Darcy law expressing the relation between the filling time and H, W, d, under the chosen overall of grooves. The function of minimum filling time was used to optimize H, W, d , the optimum Groove's parameters are as follows: H=5mm,W=10, d=25mm.By contrast of tensile strength and flexural strength of molding 3D woven perform separately using VARTM and RTM, the results show that tensile strength and flexural strength of VARTM process are close to RTM by molding 3D woven composite, so , the low cost VARTM process can mold high property composites.