A numerical simulation of woven/anionic polyamide 6 composite part manufacturing using structural reactive injection moulding process

In this work, a structural reactive injection moulding process using reactive anionic polyamide 6 (APA-6) is studied. Semi-empirical equations for the prediction of the APA-6 reaction kinetics and an advection equation for void transport are used in the numerical scheme. A complex numerical simulation of reactive injection of epsilon-caprolactam was developed for a three-dimensional industrial part. The validity of the approach is demonstrated for determining an effective injection strategy, including the position of vents and gates and the most effective parameter values for minimum mould filling time without the formation of voids.