Trans‐plane fluid permeability measurement and its applications in liquid composite molding

This work discusses tow independent methods to measure and analyze the trans-plane fjuid permeability of various fiber reinforcements. In the unidirectional flow method, the measured injection pressure and flow rate, together with a one-dimensional Darcy's law were used to calculate the trans-plane permeability of fiber mats was independent of flow rate only at low injection pressure. Flow-induced fiber mat permeability change occurred when the injection pressure exceeded the clamping pressure. Measured permeability in conjunction with a three-dimensional mold filling computer program was used to simulate the effect of stacking sequence for a combination of different fiber mats on the mold filling pattern. Finally, a method is proposed to simplify the simulation of a three-dimensional flow through the fiber perform.