3. Conclusion

Simulation of compaction, or more generally of compressible flows, is tending, like that of filling, to become a reliable and widely-used design aid. The simulation of residual deformations and stresses remains more delicate, as the particularly complex physics of the phenomena involved are still difficult to incorporate.

Software is becoming increasingly complex, but of course the accuracy of the results depends closely on the quality of the physical data, not all of which is easy to measure: viscosity as a function of shear rate, temperature and pressure, pVT curves, elastic or viscoelastic data of the solidified polymer, possibly anisotropic, to name but the main ones...