A flux limiter strategy for solving the saturation equation in RTM process simulation

The main aim of this work is the proposal of a numerical procedure for solving the saturation equation in RTM process simulation. In order to analyze in more detail the progressive impregnation of a fibrous preform by a fluid resin, the numerical model here proposed considers the flow through a partially saturated medium, including the dependence of permeability on the saturation degree. The model consists of an elliptic equation governing the pressure distribution and a transport hyperbolic equation governing the evolution of the saturation. A global flux limiter fixed mesh strategy is proposed for solving the transport equation with source term which describes the saturation evolution in RTM process. The flux limiter method has the ability to limit the extra numerical diffusion introduced by standard first-order schemes. This formulation could be an appealing choice for improving RTM flow simulations and optimize injection processes. Some preliminary numerical results are presented in order to validate the proposed numerical strategy.