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This paper gives a review of the finite element techniques (FE) applied in the area of material processing. The latest trends in metal forming, non‐metal forming, powder metallurgy and composite material processing are briefly discussed. The range of applications of finite elements on these subjects is extremely wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore the aim of the paper is to give FE researchers/users only an encyclopaedic view of the different possibilities that exist today in the various fields mentioned above. An appendix included at the end of the paper presents a bibliography on finite element applications in material processing for 1994‐1996, where 1,370 references are listed. This bibliography is an updating of the paper written by Brannberg and Mackerle which has been published in Engineering Computations, Vol. 11 No. 5, 1994, pp. 413‐55.

The resin transfer molding process for composites manufacturing consists of either of two considerations, namely, the fluid flow analysis through a porous fiber preform where the location of the flow front is of fundamental importance, and the combined flow/heat transfer/cure analysis. In this paper, the continuous sensitivity formulations are developed for the process modeling of composites manufactured by RTM to predict, analyze, and optimize the manufacturing process. Attention is focused here on developments for isothermal flow simulations, and various illustrative examples are presented for sensitivity analysis of practical applications which help serve as a design tool in the process modeling stages.

A simplified approach for estimating weld lines, vent locations and fill times for resin transfer molding applications in non‐planar geometry is presented. The molding parts are treated as polyhedral spaces for which the concept of Voronoi diagram and shortest paths is utilized to predict the formation of weld lines, location of vents and filling times. The approach is based purely on geometrical considerations and on previously established observations that it is possible to treat the resin flow inside the mold as partly radial and partly channel‐like. The proposed procedure is geared towards software implementation, but it enables one to gain more insight into the process before detailed and time‐consuming calculations are attempted.

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the environmental footprint and cost and thus compare different manufacturing scenarios associated with the production of aeronautical structural components.

A representative helicopter canopy, i.e., canopy of the EUROCOPTER EC Twin Star helicopter described in Pantelakis et al. (2009), has been considered for the carbon footprint (life cycle energy and climate change impact analysis) along with the life cycle costing analysis. Four scenarios – combinations of different manufacturing technologies (autoclave and resin transfer molding (RTM)) and end-of-life treatment scenarios (mechanical recycling and pyrolysis) are considered.

Using the models developed the expected environmental and cost benefits by involving the RTM technique have been quantified. The environmental impact was expressed in terms of energy consumption and of Global Warming Potential-100. From an environmental standpoint, processing the canopy using the RTM technique leads to decreased energy demands as compared to autoclaving because of the shorter curing cycles exhibited from this technique and thus the less time needed. As far as the financial viability of both processing scenarios is concerned, the more steps needed for preparing the mold and the need for auxiliary materials increase the material and the labor cost of autoclaving as compared to RTM.

At the early design stages in aeronautics, a number of disciplines (environmental, financial and mechanical) should be taken into account in order to evaluate alternative scenarios (material, manufacturing, recycling, etc.). In this paper a methodology is developed toward this direction, quantifying the environmental and financial viability of different manufacturing scenarios associated with the production of aeronautical structures.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the applicability of an indirect rapid tooling technique to the autoclave forming of carbon fibre reinforced plastic laminates.

A rapid prototyping machine was used to process a photo elastic resin to fabricate the pre‐moulds. Liquid particle‐filled epoxy resin was poured in the pre‐mould and cured in an oven. Real autoclave process conditions were then applied to the mould several times to assess the geometrical stability and the accuracy of the produced parts, measured using a laser 3D scanner.

This paper reports the procedures developed for the rapid manufacture of carbon fibre reinforced plastic components.

The method is applicable to components of small to medium dimensions (max 500 mm).

This is a pioneer attempt towards the rapid manufacturing of high performances composite components. It has been presented for patenting purposes (Gian Luca Monti, Ezequiel Poodts, Giangiacomo Minak, and Cristiano Fragassa. Pat. Pending Nr. PS2010A000026, 2010).

The purpose of the present paper is to describe the modeling, analysis and simulations for the resin transfer molding (RTM), manufacturing process with particular emphasis on the sensitivity analysis for non‐isothermal applications.

For the manufacturing of advanced composites via RTM, besides the tracking of the resin flow fronts through a porous fiber perform, the heat transfer and the resin cure kinetics play an important role. The computational modeling is coupled multi‐disciplinary problem of flow‐thermal‐cure. The paper describes the so‐called continuous sensitivity formulation via the finite element method for this multi‐disciplinary problem for process modeling of composites manufactured by RTM to predict, analyze and optimize the manufacturing process.

Illustrative numerical examples are presented for two sample problems which include examination of sensitivity parameters for the case of material and geometric properties, and boundary conditions including fill time sensitivity analysis. The results indicate that the proposed formulations serve a useful role for the design and optimization of the RTM manufacturing process, thereby, avoiding heuristic trial‐and‐error methods.

The paper restricts attention to constant properties and extensions to non‐linear thermophysical properties will serve as an added benefit.

The present efforts significantly impact the design/optimization process in the process modeling of composites manufactured by RTM.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time that continuous sensitivity analysis is done for non‐isothermal considerations in RTM.

The focus is set on the development and evaluation of a numerical mgodel describing the impregnation stage of a method to manufacture fibre reinforced polymer composites, namely the vacuum infusion process. Examples of items made with this process are hulls to sailing yachts and containers for the transportation industry. The impregnation is characterised by a full 3D flow in a porous medium having an anisotropic, spatial‐ and time‐dependent permeability. The numerical model has been implemented in a general and commercial computational fluid dynamic software through custom written subroutines that: couple the flow equations to the equations describing the stiffness of the fibre reinforcement; modify the momentum equations to account for the porous medium flow; remesh the computational domain in each time step to account for the deformation by pressure change. The verification of the code showed excellent agreement with analytical solutions and very good agreement with experiments. The numerical model can easily be extended to more complex geometry and to other constitutive equations for the permeability and the compressibility of the reinforcement.