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Study on void formation in resin transfer molding
Author(s) -
Chang ChihYuan,
Hourng LihWu
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.10246
Subject(s) - capillary action , transfer molding , materials science , bundle , fiber bundle , composite material , void (composites) , porosity , transverse plane , homogeneous , finite element method , fiber , mechanics , permeability (electromagnetism) , mold , thermodynamics , structural engineering , chemistry , physics , engineering , biochemistry , membrane
A 2‐D model has been developed for the transverse impregnation of a resin into a unidirectional packed fiber mat. The model takes into account two types of flow, macro‐flow around the fiber bundles and micro‐flow around the fibers in the bundles, which occur simultaneously. Both flows are described by Darcy's law. Results show that if the ratio of permeability of the macro‐flow to the micro‐flow is more than 20, an elliptic type void is formed within the fiber bundle, and the void will shrink and disappear if vacuum assistance is applied in the mold. The capillary effect was also investigated by use of a numerical simulation based on a body‐fitted finite element method and by experiment. A correlation between the capillary force and other parameters is proposed for the XT‐D/O unidirectional fiber mat. The quasi‐equilibrium capillary effect is limited to when the modified capillary number is about O(10 −4 ).