Determination of Permeability of Engineering Textiles
Mentor 1
Krishna M. Pillai
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
28-4-2017 1:30 PM
End Date
28-4-2017 4:00 PM
Description
Polymer Composites are the new-age materials that are light weight, strong, corrosion resistant and very stiff, and because of these extraordinary properties are used in several industries including automobiles, aerospace, military hardware, boat and ship building, and sports goods. Liquid composite molding (LCM) technology is an important technology to manufacture polymer composites. Mold-filling simulations are used regularly to help engineers with the design of LCM molds in virtual space without the wastage of time and money associated with the trail-and-error approach applied to mold design. Estimation of the permeability of glass or carbon fabrics (used as reinforcement in polymer composites) through experiments is crucial to the simulation of the resin flow using PORE-FLOW, a LCM mold-filling program created by Dr. Pillai's group at UW-Milwaukee.
The objective of this research is to study changes in permeability as well as changes in the unsaturated flow with the orientation of anisotropic fiber mats/fabrics. The fiber mats and fabrics are composed of fiber bundles that are knitted/woven in different spatial patterns. We inject oil through a stack of fabrics/fiber mats and such a flow mimics resin flow in an LCM mold due to similarity in viscosity. Both inlet pressure and flow rate are measured as the oil passes through. We use this data to calculate the permeability as well as study the unsaturated flow. We plan to use these permeability values to simulate the unsaturated flow through fiber mats/fabrics in LCM mold and validate these predictions by comparing them with experiments.
Determination of Permeability of Engineering Textiles
Union Wisconsin Room
Polymer Composites are the new-age materials that are light weight, strong, corrosion resistant and very stiff, and because of these extraordinary properties are used in several industries including automobiles, aerospace, military hardware, boat and ship building, and sports goods. Liquid composite molding (LCM) technology is an important technology to manufacture polymer composites. Mold-filling simulations are used regularly to help engineers with the design of LCM molds in virtual space without the wastage of time and money associated with the trail-and-error approach applied to mold design. Estimation of the permeability of glass or carbon fabrics (used as reinforcement in polymer composites) through experiments is crucial to the simulation of the resin flow using PORE-FLOW, a LCM mold-filling program created by Dr. Pillai's group at UW-Milwaukee.
The objective of this research is to study changes in permeability as well as changes in the unsaturated flow with the orientation of anisotropic fiber mats/fabrics. The fiber mats and fabrics are composed of fiber bundles that are knitted/woven in different spatial patterns. We inject oil through a stack of fabrics/fiber mats and such a flow mimics resin flow in an LCM mold due to similarity in viscosity. Both inlet pressure and flow rate are measured as the oil passes through. We use this data to calculate the permeability as well as study the unsaturated flow. We plan to use these permeability values to simulate the unsaturated flow through fiber mats/fabrics in LCM mold and validate these predictions by comparing them with experiments.
