Through-the-Thickness Permeabiltiy of the Reinforcing Tex

Design of a more efficient resin injection process

In this project a fundamental understanding of the impregnation behavior of reinforcing textiles at high pressure applications is gained. This understanding can be used for a more efficient design of Liquid Composite Molding processes.

Liquid composite molding processes are particularly suitable for the fast and cost-efficient production of high-performance composite components. This is particularly true for modern process variants that provide a through-thickness impregnation, such as Compression Resin Transfer Molding. For these processes, an efficient process design requires an understanding of the textile impregnation behavior in out-of-plane direction. In a previous project, funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation), a test rig that allows the monitoring of the textile reaction to through-thickness impregnation up to a max. pressure of 10 bar was developed. In this DFG continuation project, a measuring system has been developed and built which is capable of determining thickness permeability and hydrodynamic compaction effects in high-pressure applications up to 200 bar. The measuring system - made of stainless steel - was mechanically designed by using FEM with the objective to limit the maximum strain under pressure to less than 10 μm at a maximum specimen thickness of 35 mm. This, together with the additional implementation of displacement sensors to record the strain of the bolts, ensures that measurement errors in the detection of textile deformations are minimized. In accompanying studies on a high-speed universal testing machine, the dynamic compaction behavior of dry textiles at compaction speeds up to 4,800 mm/min is being investigated to serve as an input variable for a simulative mapping of the test setup in a digital twin.

In this project a fundamental understanding of the impregnation behavior of reinforcing textiles at high pressure applications is gained. This understanding can be used for a more efficient design of liquid composite molding processes.

Field of competence

Industry sectors

Project status

  • Current

Publications

Saturated out-of-plane permeability and deformation metrology of textiles at high levels of injection pressure

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20550340.2022.2064070

Contacts

Fundings

The project “Measurement and Modeling of Unsaturated Out-of-Plane Permeability and High Pressure Impregnation of Engineering Textiles” is funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 299108850.