Flow control in resin transfer molding with switching and feedback strategies

Two recent advances in controlling flow progression in resin transfer molding (RTM) are the sequential logic control and the optimal feedback control. Both the methods have powerful features as well as limitations, and they complement each other very well. In this paper we propose an integrated control scheme combining both of them. Simulation results show that the control authority of the system is considerably expanded by the combination of the two. The integrated switching and feedback controller gives excellent performance of mold filling even in the presence of wide variations of the preform properties.