Air-texturisation is a process that adds bulkiness to bundles of fibres. In this study, the permeability and compaction behaviour of air-texturised glass fibre rovings are experimentally characterised and compared to conventional unidirectional rovings. Based on radial impregnation experiments and single-step compaction/decompaction tests, the following main findings are highlighted: Compared to conventional unidirectional-rovings, the normalised permeability of the air-texturised rovings was approximately three times higher along the fibre direction and 40 times higher transverse to the fibre direction. Accordingly, the degree of anisotropy was approximately one magnitude lower. At a compaction pressure of 1 and 5 bar, the air-texturised rovings were compacted to a volume fraction of and 0.43, respectively, which was approximately 30% lower than the volume fraction achieved for the conventional unidirectional-rovings. Finally, it was observed that the decompaction of air-texturised rovings exhibits a more distinct elastic response when unloaded.
StarrT. Pultrusion for engineers, Abingdon, UK: Taylor & Francis, 2000.
2.
Sandberg M, Hattel JH and Spangenberg J. Numerical modelling and optimisation of fibre wet-out in resin-injection pultrusion processes. In: European conference on composite materials, vol. 18, Athens, Greece, 2018.
3.
SandbergMHattelJHSpangenbergJ. Simulation of liquid composite moulding using a finite volume scheme and the level-set method. Int J Multiphase Flow2019; 118: 183–192.
4.
SandbergMRasmussenFSHattelJH, et al.Simulation of resin-impregnation, heat-transfer and cure in a resin-injection pultrusion process. AIP Conf Proceed2019; 2113: 20022–20022.
5.
GutowskiTGCaiZBauerS, et al.Consolidation experiments for laminate composites. J Compos Mater1987; 21: 650–669.
6.
GutowskiTGMorigakiTCaiZ. The consolidation of laminate composites. J Compos Mater1987; 21: 172–188.
7.
RobitailleFGauvinR. Compaction of textile reinforcements for composites manufacturing. II: Compaction and relaxation of dry and h2o-saturated woven reinforcements. Polym Compos1998; 19: 543–557.
8.
SaundersRLekakouCBaderM. Compression in the processing of polymer composites 1. A mechanical and microstructural study for different glass fabrics and resins. Compos Sci Technol1999; 59: 983–993.
9.
ChenZRYeL. A micromechanical compaction model for woven fabric preforms. part ii: Multilayer. Compos Sci Technol2006; 66: 3263–3272.
10.
Comas-CardonaSLe GrognecPBinetruyC, et al.Unidirectional compression of fibre reinforcements. Part 1: A non-linear elastic-plastic behaviour. Compos Sci Technol2007; 67: 507–514.
11.
MichaudVMånsonJAE. Impregnation of compressible fiber mats with a thermoplastic resin. Part I: Theory. J Compos Mater2001; 35: 1150–1173.
12.
MichaudVMortensenA. Infiltration processing of fibre reinforced composites: Governing phenomena. Compos A Appl Sci Manufact2001; 32: 981–996.
13.
ChengJJKellyPABickertonS. A rate-independent thermomechanical constitutive model for fiber reinforcements. J Compos Mater2012; 46: 247–256. DOI: 10.1177/0021998311410506.
14.
KellyPA. A viscoelastic model for the compaction of fibrous materials. J Text Instit2011; 102: 689–699.
15.
DanziMSchneebergerCErmanniP. A model for the time-dependent compaction response of woven fiber textiles. Compos A Appl Sci Manufact2018; 105: 180–188.
16.
SomashekarAABickertonSBhattacharyyaD. Exploring the non-elastic compression deformation of dry glass fibre reinforcements. Compos Sci Technol2007; 67: 183–200.
17.
KabachiMADanziMArreguinS, et al.Experimental study on the influence of cyclic compaction on the fiber-bed permeability, quasi-static and dynamic compaction responses. Compos A Appl Sci Manufact2019; 125: 105559–105559.
18.
CarmanPC. Fluid flow through granular beds. Trans Inst Chem Eng1937; 15: 150–166.
19.
GebartBR. Permeability of unidirectional reinforcements for RTM. J Compos Mater1992; 26: 1100–1133.
20.
CaiZBerdichevskyAL. An improved self-consistent method for estimating the permeability of a fiber assembly. Polym Compos1993; 14: 314–323.
21.
BerdichevskyALCaiZ. Preform permeability predictions by self-consistent method and finite element simulation. Polym Compos1993; 14: 132–143.
22.
Van der WesthuizenJPrieur Du PlessisJ. An attempt to quantify fibre bed permeability utilizing the phase average Navier-Stokes equation. Compos A Appl Sci Manufact1996; 27: 263–269.
23.
LundströmTSGebartBR. Effect of perturbation of fibre architecture on permeability inside fibre tows. J Compos Mater1995; 29: 424–443.
24.
ShouDFanJDingF. Hydraulic permeability of fibrous porous media. Int J Heat Mass Transfer2011; 54: 4009–4018.
25.
ArbterRBeraudJBinetruyC, et al.Experimental determination of the permeability of textiles: A benchmark exercise. Compos A Appl Sci Manufact2011; 42: 1157–1168.
26.
VernetNRuizEAdvaniSG, et al.Experimental determination of the permeability of engineering textiles: Benchmark II. Compos A Appl Sci Manufact2014; 61: 172–184.
27.
MayDAktasAAdvaniSG, et al.In-plane permeability characterization of engineering textiles based on radial flow experiments: A benchmark exercise. Compos A Appl Sci Manufact2019; 121: 100–114.
28.
SchellJSSiegristMErmanniP. Experimental determination of the transversal and longitudinal fibre bundle permeability. Appl Compos Mater2007; 14: 117–128.
29.
Bezerra RM, Wilhelm F and Henning F. Compressibility and permeability of fiber reinforcements for pultrusion. In 16th European conference on composite materials, Seville, Spain, 22–26 June 2014.
30.
Bezerra RM, Henning F and Drechsler K. Modelling and simulation of the closed injection pultrusion process. Phd Thesis, Karlsruher Institut fur Technologie (KIT), 2017.
31.
Rasmussen FS, Emerson MJ, Sonne MR et al. Fiber segmentation from 3D X-ray computed tomography of composites with continuous textured glass fibre yarns. In: Proceedings of 2019 international conference on tomography of materials & structures.
32.
Louis BM, Di Fratta C, Danzi M et al. Improving time effective and robust techniques for measuring in-plane permeability of fibre preforms for lcm processing. In: Proceedings 2011 SAMPE Europe international conference, Paris, France, 28-29 March 2011, pp.204–211, Riehen: Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering.
33.
ChanAWHwangSTT. Anisotropic in-plane permeability of fabric media. Polym Eng Sci1991; 31: 1233–1239.
34.
WeitzenböckJRShenoiRAWilsonPA. Radial flow permeability measurement. Part A: Theory. Compos A Appl Sci Manufact1999; 30: 781–796.
