• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
• /
• 2003.04a
• /
• pp.184-187
• /
• 2003

Complete prediction of second order permeability tensor for three dimensional circular braided preform is critical to understand the resin transfer molding process of composites. The permeability can be predicted by considering resin flow through the multi-axial fiber structure. In this study, permeability tensor for a 3-D circular braided preform is calculated by solving a boundary problem of a periodic unit cell. Flow field through the unit cell is obtained by using a 3-D finite volume method (FVM) and Darcy's law is utilized to obtain permeability tensor. Flow analysis for two cases that a fiber tow is regarded as impermeable solid and permeable porous medium is carried out respectively. It is found that the flow within the intra-tow region of the braided preform is negligible if inter-tow porosity is relatively high but the flow through the tow must be considered when the porosity is low. To avoid checkerboard pressure field and improve the efficiency of numerical computation, a new interpolation function for velocity variation is proposed on the basis of analytic solutions. Permeability of the braided preform is measured through a radial flow experiment and compared with the permeability predicted numerically.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
• /
• 2003.10a
• /
• pp.83-86
• /
• 2003

Complete prediction of second order permeability tensor for three dimensional preform such as plain woven fabric and braided preform is critical to understand the resin transfer molding process of composites. The permeability can be obtained by various methods such as analytic, numerical, and experimental methods. For several decades, the permeability has studied numerically to avoid practical difficulty of many experiments. However, the predicted permeabilities are a bit wrong compared with experimentally measured data. In this study, numerical calculation of permeability was conducted for two kinds of preforms i.e., plain woven fabric and circular braided preform. In order to consider intra-tow flow in the unit cell of preform the proposed flow coupled model was used for plain woven fabric and the Brinkman equation was solved in the case of the braided preform.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.17-25
• /
• 2007

In liquid composite molding (LCM), composites are produced by impregnation of a dry preform with liquid resin. The resin flow through the preform is usually described by Darcy's law and the permeability tensor must be obtained for filling analysis. While the resin flow in the thickness direction can be neglected for thin parts, the resin flow in the transverse direction is important for thicker parts. However, the transverse permeability of the preform has not been investigated frequently. In this study, the transverse permeability was measured experimentally for five different fiber preforms. In order to verify the experimental results, the measured transverse permeability was compared with numerical results. Five different fiber mats were used in this study: glass fiber woven fabric, aramid fiber woven fabric, glass fiber random mat, glass fiber braided preform, and glass/aramid hybrid braided preform. The anisotropic braided preforms were manufactured by using a three dimensional braiding machine. The pressure was measured at the inlet and outlet positions with pressure transducers.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.68-70
• /
• 2002

Prediction of 3-D permeability tensor for multi-axial preform is critical to model and design the manufacturing process of composites by considering resin flow through the multi-axial fiber structure. In this study, the in-plane and transverse permeabilities for braided preform are predicted numerically. The flow analyses are calculated by using 3-D CVFEM(control volume finite element method) for macro-unit cells. To avoid checker-board pressure field and improve the efficiency of numerical computation, a new interpolation function for velocity is proposed on the basis of analytic solutions. Permeability of a braided preform is measured through unidirectional flow experiment and compared with the permeability calculated numerically. Unlike other studies, the current study is based on more realistic unit cell and prediction of permeability is improved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.65-67
• /
• 2002

Resin Transfer Molding(RTM) is increasingly used for producing fiber reinforced polymer composites, the resin has to flow a long distance to impregnate the dry fibers. The measure for the resistance of the fiber preform to the resin flow is the permeability of the fiber preform. Permeability is a key issue in the design of molds and processes and in flow modeling. In this study, permeability measurement for braided preform is presented and compared with the permeability calculated numerically. Experimental techniques being used to measure the permeability are also discussed. Measurement is conducted in radial flow test under constant pressure.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.131-134
• /
• 2002

Braided carbon fiber reinforced Al matrix composites were developed and characterized. Braided carbon fiber preforms with braiding angles of $30^{\circ}$, $45^{\circ}$ and $60^{\circ}$ were manufactured by using a braiding machine. The manufactured braided carbon fibers were used as reinforcement to fabricate Al matrix composites by employing a pressure infiltration casting method. In the processing of pressure infiltration casting, important processing parameters such as melting temperature, preheating temperature of preform and applied pressure were optimized. Prediction of elastic constants on composites was performed by using the volume averaging method, which utilizes the coordinate transformation and the averaging of stiffeness and compliance constants based upon the volume of each reinforcement and matrix material. The elastic moduli of composites were evaluated by using Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy(RUS) method and compared with the elastic moduli obtained from static tensile test method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
• /
• 2002.10a
• /
• pp.52-55
• /
• 2002

This paper examines the effective thermal conductivity of 3-D braided glass/epoxy composites. 3-D braided composites have a number of advantage over conventional laminate composites, including through-thickness reinforcement, and high damage tolerance and processability. The thermal properties of composites depend primarily on the microstructure of the braided preform and properties of constituent materials. A thermal resistance network model based on structure of the braided preform is proposed by using thermal-electrical analogy. In order to affirm the applicability theses solutions, thermal conductivities of 3-D braided glass/epoxy composites are measured

• Proceedings of the Korean Fiber Society Conference
• /
• 2003.04a
• /
• pp.191-194
• /
• 2003

In this study, permeability tensor is computed for a three dimensional braided preform by applying a FVM to a unit cell. It is evident that resin will flow through the inter-tow and the intra-tow regions when pressure gradient is applied to the resin. The intra-tow region in the braided preform is regarded as not only an impermeable solid but also a permeable porous media. When the intra-tow region is excluded from domain of flow analysis in the case of the impermeable solid, the Stokes equation is computer for only inter-tow region. (omitted)

• Fibers and Polymers
• /
• v.4 no.3
• /
• pp.135-144
• /
• 2003

Permeability of the preform is one of key factors in design of RTM (Resin Transfer Molding) mold, determination of processing conditions, and modeling of flow in the mold. According to previous studies, permeability measured in the unsaturated fiber mats are higher than that in the saturated fiber mats by about 20% because of the capillary pressure. In this study, permeabilities of several fiber preforms are measured for both saturated and unsaturated flows. A saturated experiment of radial flow has been adopted to measure the permeability of anisotropic fiber preforms with high fiber content, i.e., circular braided preforms. In this method, four pressure transducers are used to measure the pressure distribution. Permeabilities in different directions are determined and the experimental results show a good agreement with the theory. Since permeability is affected by the capillary effect, permeability should be measured in the unsaturated condition for the textile composites to be manufactured under lower pressure as in the Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM).

• Proceedings of the Korean Society For Composite Materials Conference
• /
• 2001.05a
• /
• pp.38-41
• /
• 2001

A new 2-D braided textile metal matrix composite was developed and characterized. The constituent materials consist of PAN type carbon fiber as reinforcements and pure aluminum as matrices. The braided preforms of different braider yarn angles were fabricated. For a fixed bundle size of 12K, three braider yarn angles was selected: $30^{\circ}$, $45^{\circ}$, and $60^{\circ}$. The braided preforms were infiltrated with pure Al by vacuum assisted squeeze casting. Through the investigation of melt pressing methods and the effects of process parameters such as applied pressure, and pouring temperature, the optimal process conditions were identified as follows: applied pressure of 60MPa, pouring temperature of $800^{\circ}C$. Using the measured geometric parameters, 3-D engineering constants of metal matrix composites have been determined from the elastic model, which utilizes the coordinate transformation and the averaging of stiffened and compliance constants based upon the volume of each reinforcement and matrix material.