SGER: On-Line Fiber Preform Permeability Measurement and Its Applications to Liquid Composite Molding

复合材料液态成型是制备纤维增强复合材料的一种重要方法。在LCM工艺中，树脂流动引起的缺陷被认为是质量和再现性问题的最大原因。树脂流动模式与纤维预制体渗透率及其在整个模型区域的变化高度相关。为了准确地表征下游应用的纤维预制件渗透性，探索性研究小额赠款（SGER）将研究进行在线渗透性测量的方法，可以检测局部渗透性变化。这一方法的可行性需要证明，在适合于该工艺的长度尺度上可以确定可测量的压降，并且证明树脂渗透率可以与针对该在线测量技术提出的气体渗透率充分相关。所解决的问题对纤维复合材料工业是重要的问题，并且该项目如果成功，将对通过环境清洁的模具填充表征方法生产高性能复合材料产品产生巨大影响。

Liquid composite molding (LCM) is an important method of producing fiber reinforced composite materials. In LCM processing, resin flow induced defects are recognized as the largest cause of quality and reproducibility problems. The resin flow pattern is highly related to the fiber preform permeability and its variations in the entire area of the model. In order to characterize the fiber preform permeability accurately for downstream applications, this Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) will investigate a means of conducting on-line permeability measurements that can detect local permeability variations. The feasibility of this requires the demonstration that a measurable pressure drop can be determined over the length scales appropriate for this process, and the demonstration that resin permeability can be adequately related to the gas permeability proposed for this on-line measurement technique.The problem being addressed is a significant one to the fiber composite industry, and this project, if successful, would have a tremendous impact upon the production of high performance composite products via an environmentally clean mold-filling characterization methodology.