Abstract
This study seeks to continuously improve the wetout and thus the quality and productivity of pultruded parts for the tapered injection pultrusion process for an injection chamber “detached” from the pultrusion die. Complete wetout of the dry fibre reinforcement by the liquid resin depends strongly on the axial location of the injection slot within the injection chamber. This investigation was conducted for a high pull speed with a fibre volume fraction and resin viscosity for a nominal polyester/glass roving composite. A 3-D finite volume technique was developed to simulate the flow of polyester resin through the glass rovings. The results show the impact of the axial location of the injection slot on the minimum injection pressure necessary to achieve complete fibre matrix wetout and the resin pressure within the injection chamber for a tapered injection chamber which is “detached” upstream of the pultrusion die. Injection chamber design information is presented.