Fiber-reinforced materials offer a huge potential for lightweight design of load-bearing structures. However, high-volume production of such parts is still a challenge in terms of cost efficiency and competitiveness. Numerical process simulation can be used to analyze underlying mechanisms and to find a suitable process design. In this study, the curing process of the resin is investigated with regard to its influence on RTM mold filling and process-induced distortion.

Developments in machinery, materials and applications are outlined in the cond104 of commercial considerations and advances in fundamental understanding. The principles and benefits of polymer modification and blending via reactive extrusion are explained. A b257 of novel techniques which have developed out of the major reactive processes are also described. An additional indexed section containing several hundred abstracts from the Rapra Polymer Library database provides useful references for further reading.

The emergence of reaction injection molding (RIM) has been fol lowed by the industry with mounting interest. RIM technology has brought to polymer processing a new flexibility and savings in both energy and capital investment. The new developments and the number of engineers and scientists working in RIM is growing at so fast a rate that there is need for sharing information on progress in this area. This book is based on papers presented at the International Symposium on Reaction Injection Molding which was held in 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia, and was sponsored by the American Chemical Society, Division of Organic Coatings and Plastics Chemistry. The book is divided into four parts covering different areas of RIM development. The first part is devoted to the future trends of RIM develop ment in the United States and Japan. The structure-properties relationship and effects of annealing on properties of RIM elastomers are covered in the second part. New non-urethane polymers such as polyamides, polyisocyanurates and polystyrene suitable for RIM processing are discussed in the third part. In the last part the engineering and technological aspects of RIM, such as glass reinforcement, mixing, flow and moldability are covered in detail. Finally I would like to thank Mrs. Iris Glebe for typing this book and for help with editing, and K. Zielinski for his assistance v vi PREFACE in reviewing and, when necessary, correcting some of the papers. Thanks is also due to the editors of Plenum for their patience and helpfulness.

This book presents improved numerical techniques and applied computer-aided simulations as a part of emerging trends in mechatronics in all areas related to complex fluids, with particular focus on using a combination of modeling, theory, and simulation to study systems that are complex due to the rheology of fluids (i.e., ceramic pastes, polymer solutions and melts, colloidal suspensions, emulsions, foams, micro-/nanofluids, etc.) and multiphysics phenomena in which the interactions of various effects (thermal, chemical, electric, magnetic, or mechanical) lead to complex dynamics. The areas of applications span materials processing, manufacturing, and biology.