A fixed mesh numerical method for modelling the flow in liquid composites moulding processes using a volume of fluid technique Original Research Article

This paper presents the development and application of a numerical procedure for the simulation of the flow phenomena involved in composite manufacturing processes. The kinematic resolution combines a discretization of the volume fraction evolution equation and the verification of the movement and the incompressibility equations in a fixed mesh. We consider a variational formulation of Darcy’s flow weighted by the volume fraction and the variational formulation of a pseudo-behaviour associated with the empty part of the domain weighted by its complementary function. For the integration of the advection equation, which governs the volume fraction evolution, a second-order scheme with flux limiters has been used. In order to validate the proposed method, numerical results in one and two dimensions are presented.