Abstract
It is very important to predict any defects occurring by undesired fiber deformations to improve production yields of resin transfer molding, which has been widely used for mass production of carbon fiber reinforced composite parts. In this study, a simple and efficient analytic scheme was proposed to predict deformations of a multi-layered fiber preform by comparing the forces applied to the preform in a mold of resin transfer molding. Friction coefficient of dry and wet states, permeability, and compressive behavior of unidirectional (UD) and plain woven (PW) carbon fabrics were measured, which were used to predict deformations of the multi-layered fiber preforms with changing their constitution ratios. The model predicted the occurrence, type, and position of fiber deformation, which agreed with the experimental results of the multi-layered preforms.
Highlights
High speed liquid molding processes, such as high pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM), have been successfully applied to the mass production system of automotive lightweight carbon fiber reinforced composite components [1,2,3]
We investigated the resin flow induced deformation of unidirectional carbon fiber preform in the mold filling process by considering friction, in-mold stiffness and shear force by resin flow [18]
It is expected that the proposed scheme can be used to predict the deformation behavior of any specific stacking combination of fiber preforms by using the experimental results of constituent single layers, which will be very efficient to design the stacking structure of fiber preform with considering manufacturability, preventing the undesired deformation during the resin transfer molding process
Summary
High speed liquid molding processes, such as high pressure resin transfer molding (HP-RTM), have been successfully applied to the mass production system of automotive lightweight carbon fiber reinforced composite components [1,2,3]. Endruweit et al tried to measure the flow induced fiber deformation and investigated the corresponding mechanism by considering both friction and compressive forces [17] They measured the cases of multiple layer-stacked fiber preform from one kind of fabric. An analytical model for predicting deformation of multi-layered carbon fiber preform by using some experimental results of single-layered one was proposed, and the specific cases with unidirectional and plain woven fabric were investigated by comparing the predicted results with the experimental ones. It is expected that the proposed scheme can be used to predict the deformation behavior of any specific stacking combination of fiber preforms by using the experimental results of constituent single layers, which will be very efficient to design the stacking structure of fiber preform with considering manufacturability, preventing the undesired deformation during the resin transfer molding process
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