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

液态复合材料成型是制备纤维增强复合材料的一种重要方法。在LCM加工中，树脂流动引起的缺陷被认为是导致质量和重复性问题的最大原因。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率，这项小型探索性研究拨款(SGER)将研究一种进行在线渗透率测量的方法，该方法可以检测局部渗透率变化。要做到这一点的可行性，需要证明可以在适用于该工艺的长度范围内确定可测量的压降，并证明树脂渗透率可以与为该在线测量技术提出的气体渗透率充分相关。正在解决的问题对纤维复合材料行业来说是一个重要的问题，如果该项目成功，将通过一种环境清洁的充模表征方法对高性能复合材料产品的生产产生巨大影响。

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.