Resin transfer molding: nonlinear model development from a control perspective

Resin transfer molding (RTM) is employed in the manufacture of complex 3D polymer composite parts. Resin curing is one of two critical steps in RTM where the injected resin polymerizes and cross-links. Because of the exothermic nature of these reactions, the temperature evolution of the system is distributed in time and space. The development of computationally tractable process models for the curing process is essential for the development of model-based process control algorithms that minimize the spatial gradients during the curing process. A reduced-order model that consist of a finite number of nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) is obtained from detailed continuum cure models using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and Galerkin projection. The accuracy and predictive capabilities of such models are assessed