Application of woven fiber mats in fabricating preforms for resin transfer molding (RTM) is a highly viable means of manufacturing affordable composites. Such light weight composites, having good mechanical properties, are being used in primary airframe structures in the aerospace industry. The success of RTM molded parts is largely determined by the filling process. Preform permeability plays an important role in the physics of mold filling process. In general, the preform permeability is a function of the fiber tow and mat construction. Drape, in this paper, refers to the act of bringing a flat workpiece into contact with an arbitrary tool surface. As a result, the draping of the woven mats tends to cause the mat to deform to the tool geometry. This effect has received little attention in the literature. This paper takes into account the role of drapability of fiber mats in the manufacturing process. It has been shown that drape of mats causes the fiber orientation to change and the fiber volume fraction to be inhomogeneous. Results demonstrate the use of a geometry-based computation scheme in predicting the fiber volume fraction as well as the deformation. Permeability of the draped preform can be estimated through previously developed models and the influence on the flow of resin and processing parameters is also shown through a case study. it is found that the prediction of pressure inside the mold is no longer intuitive when the influence of drapingis not negligible.
The role of drapability of fiber preforms in resin transfer molding
Die Rolle der Faltenlegbarkeit der Faservorformlinge im Harz-Spritzpressen
1994
14 Seiten, 13 Bilder, 2 Tabellen, 13 Quellen
Conference paper
English
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