Volume 15, Issue 2, 2006

CHARACTERIZATION OF MOULD FILLING IN VACUUM INFUSION PROCESS

Young Seok Song
Centre for Composite Materials, University of Delaware Newark, DE 19716 Tel.: +1 (302) 831-2765, Fax:+1 (302) 831-8525, E-mail address: youngseoks@gmail.com

(Received 5/06; accepted 6/06 )

ABSTRACT

A study on mold filling in vacuum infusion process was carried out analytically. Three different compaction models were used to describe compaction behaviour of preforms. New analytic solutions were proposed for fibre volume fraction and pressure distributions, and an effective permeability was defined based on the solutions. In this study, the closed form equations introduced by Lopatnikov et al. [1] were modified to consider the preform compaction behaviour more exactly and the results of the modified equations were employed in an effort to verify the proposed analytic model. It was found that the very different pressure and fibre volume fraction profiles were developed during the resin infusion depending on the compaction behaviour of the preforms.

Keywords: mathematical characterization, vacuum infusion process.