Modeling impregnation process of glass fabrics by polyester binder under pressure

Abstract

The article gives analysis of the need for process simulation when developing new methods of making dimensional products from fiberglass, in particular, during the transition from hand-molding technology to pressure impregnation technology. In this work the results of determining the basic parameters of filler (fib erglass), its behavior un-der applied compressive force and change pack porosity are presented. On the physical model we studied the way the resin passes through the porous space and defined coefficients of pro-determined permeability in two directions, time of impregnation of predetermined packet sizes, and degree of filling to a certain depth. The experimental result s were compared with the results of numerical calculation of the modified body orthotropic theory of heat conduction. The results of calculation of the duration of impregnation for model plane models provide high of performance of convergence with the results of the experiment, which enables the use of numerical methods for simulation of the process as applied to real structures. Using the experimental data obtained from the coef ficients of permeability of fiber system, we cal-culated the time of full impregnation of the actual product. During the calculations, we have changed the source data for the applied pressure and, varying the circuit supplying and removing the binder, determined the optimal parameters for which the filling of the pore space of the fiber system does not exceed the lifetime of the binder. Modeling allows us to observe the distribution of the binder in the flow of resin during the impregnation process. Application of numerical method allows us to achieve high quality products and to im-prove understanding of the production process.