Multi-scale Modeling and Simulation of Composite Manufacturing Processes

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Department Seminar Series

Suresh G. Advani
George W. Laird Professor and Chair of Mechanical Engineering and Associate Director,
Center for Composite Materials
University of Delaware

This talk will focus on how the science base of materials processing, which integrates material parameters with transport phenomena at various scales during manufacturing, can be used to create multi-physics models and implemented in simulations to describe the effect of material, geometric and process parameters on the final quality of the part. The simulations can be further used as optimization and control tools to improve the yield of the process despite the variability in the incoming materials and the process parameters.  Automation can be introduced with equipment designs that rely on sensors and simulations interfaced with actuators to address variability and disturbances in the process. Examples where this has been demonstrated on a laboratory scale will be presented for Liquid Molding processes such as Resin Transfer Molding, Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding and Compression Resin Transfer Molding.

Biosketch

Suresh G. Advani received his Ph. D from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1987. His research interests are in rheology; fluid mechanics and heat transfer as applied to composite processing and alternate energy sources such as fuel cells and hydrogen storage. Advani has published over 250 journal papers and delivered over 50 invited lectures. He is the lead author of a text on Process Modeling in Composite Manufacturing Processes. Professor Advani is a Fellow of American Society of Mechanical Engineers and is the North American Editor for the journal Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing.  Professor Advani also serves also on the Scientific Advisory Committee of Journal of Forming Processes, Computer Methods in Engineering Science and International Conference on Flow Processes in Composites Manufacturing.  Recently, the Society of Plastic Engineers named him the Composites Educator of the year for 2015 and he was selected for the Outstanding Research Award for 2015 by the American Society of Composites.