Iranian Journal of  Manufacturing Engineering

Iranian Journal of Manufacturing Engineering

Design and development of a test apparatus for concurrent measurement of in-plane permeability and compaction behavior of fiber beds

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Aerospace Engineering Department, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The Vacuum Infusion (VI) process is an attractive method for manufacturing large composite structures with complex shapes. In this process, reinforcement fabrics are placed in a mold with one rigid and one flexible side. Resin is infused into the preform through inlet location (s) using a vacuum to ensure complete saturation of the fiber bed. After filling the mold and curing the laminate, the laminate is removed from the mold. Selecting appropriate resin inlet and outlet locations is crucial to prevent dry spots in the preform. Studying resin flow in the fiber bed using numerical simulations is vital for optimizing this parameter. Accurate numerical simulation of resin flow requires experimental characterization of the fiber bed's permeability and compaction behavior. Permeability, which indicates the ease of resin flow, varies in different fiber bed directions. In this study, a specially designed test apparatus measured both the permeability and compression behavior of the fiber bed simultaneously. The test was conducted on a flat preform composed of nine layers of 400 g/m² woven glass fabric. The results included two critical outputs: a graph showing permeability as a function of fiber volume fraction, and another graph illustrating fiber volume fraction relative to compression pressure. These findings can be used as inputs for the numerical simulation of resin flow in the selected flat preform.
Keywords

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