Effect of fiber sizing ĝ€" test fluid interaction on the unsaturated and saturated flow in the VARTM process

The focus of this experimental investigation is the sizing-test fluid interaction reported to result in variable flow behavior in and permeability values for porous media. The flow behavior is studied for Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM). Three types of sizing and three test fluids were chosen for the experiments. Two carbon stitch and two glass stitch bonded fabrics of different tow sizes were used for flow characterization. The present study uses two fluids with the same viscosity for each fabric to determine fluid-sizing interaction. The results show that the permeability values are the same with the fluids of same viscosity. The saturated flow behavior due to the heterogeneous nature of the media is different from the one observed in RTM processes. For VARTM processes the dual scale flow characteristics is not observed for a variety of tow sizes.