Simulation numerique de l'infusion et de l'injection de resine sous paroi flexible (French text)

The objective of this research work is to study manufacturing processes of composite materials such as infusion or "RTM Light" that can be interesting alternatives to classical closed mold RTM injections. These liquid composite molding techniques are mainly characterized by the use of a deformable mold. This report exhibits the theoretical, numerical and experimental aspects, which enable to propose and validate a general numerical method to simulate resin infusion. Firstly a bibliographical review of previous works on the topic is proposed and the main issues to be investigated are stated. Then the new notion of "flexible permeability" is introduced. An analytical method to predict "flexible permeability" and an experimental procedure to measure it are described. Simulations were carried out for an ambulance roof fabricated by resin infusion using this "flexible permeability" in a numerical software designed for RTM. The numerical results are discussed and compared with a real injection. In a third part, the coupling between the mechanical deformation of the mold and the impregnation of the reinforcement by the resin is investigated. The mathematical equations governing these phenomena are presented. A numerical algorithm is also developes, which takes into account the compressibility of the fabric and the mechanical characteristics of the mold. A new module of calculation called LCMFlex has been implemented in the object oriented language C++. This numerical tool is finally validated by comparison with a series of experiments performed in the laboratory.