Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : November 16, 2018
Vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VaRTM) process consists of thermosetting resin impregnation to fiber preform and is one of the cost effective way for manufacturing composites. Permeability defined in Darcy’s law corresponds with the magnitude of flowability and the key parameter in VaRTM process. Measurement of permeability was conducted by unsaturated unidirectional flow due to simplicity of apparatus and flow front observation with epoxy resin for test fluid. Race-tracking is phenomenon which includes faster test fluid flow between laminated fabrics and bagging film compared with fabrics and provides large variation of permeability. This paper shows fabric preparation and materials arrangement to reduce effect of race-tracking to permeability. Pulling out of fiber bundles at the edges restricted race-tracking and flow front shape nearly parallel to inlet. However the scatter between experimental data was still large thus conditions of nesting and epoxy resin need to control strictly.
