Open Access

ARTICLE

Modeling of Moisture Diffusion in Permeable Particle-Reinforced Epoxy Resins Using Three-Dimensional Heterogeneous Hybrid Moisture Element Method

by D.S. Liu¹, Z.H. Fong¹, I.H. Lin¹, Z.W. Zhuang¹

1 Advanced Institute of Manufacturing for High-tech Innovations and Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chung Cheng University, 168, University Rd., Min-Hsiung, Chia-Yi, 621, Taiwan, R.O.C.
2 Corresponding author. Tel.: +886-5-2720411 (Ext: 33305); fax: +886-5-2720589; Email: imedsl@ccu.edu.tw (D.S. Liu).

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2013, 93(6), 441-468. https://doi.org/10.3970/cmes.2013.093.441

Abstract

In this study, we proposed a novel numerical technique to simulate the transient moisture diffusion process and to apply it to heterogeneous composite resins. The method is based on a heterogeneous hybrid moisture element (HHME), with properties determined through an equivalent hybrid moisture capacitance/ conductance matrix that was calculated using the conventional finite element formulation in space discretization and the q-method in time discretization, with similar mass/stiffness properties and matrix condensing operations. A coupled HHME with finite element scheme was developed and implemented in the computer code by using the commercial software MATLAB to analyze the transient moisture diffusion process of composite materials that contain multiple distributed particles and possess permeable capability. The HHMEM proposed in this study provides a straightforward and efficient means of modeling because only one HHME moisture characteristic matrix needs to be calculated for all HHMEs that share the same characteristics. Crucial sealing adhesive particle parameters, such as the size, moisture diffusion coefficient, and volume fraction of particles in the composite resin, can be easily investigated by controlling the size of the inclusion region within the HHME domain. Several numerical examples demonstrate the effectiveness and accuracy of the present methodology.

---

Keywords

---