Experimental and numerical characterization of resin impregnation behavior in textile composites fabricated with micro-braiding technique

Abstract

Fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites has poorer matrix resin impregnation to fiber reinforcements, because of extreme high viscosity of molten thermoplastics. Fabrication method of intermediate materials using micro-braiding technique has been developed to overcome these difficulties. In this study, resin impregnation behavior in textile composites fabricated by micro-braiding technique was investigated. In order to predict the impregnation behavior, a simple model was proposed based on the Darcy's law and the continuity equation. Textiles composite plates were fabricated under various fabrication conditions using micro-braided yarn and the resin impregnation behavior in fiber yarn was investigated experimentally. The impregnation in single-ply textile composites is improved compared with that of multi-ply composites because single-ply composites have flatter fiber yarns which result in shorter impregnation distance. The numerical predictions calculated by boundary element method are in good agreement with the experimental results. This result suggests the effectiveness of the analysis proposed.