A COMPARISON OF THE UNIDIRECTIONAL AND RADIAL INPLANE FLOW OF FLUIDS THROUGH WOVEN COMPOSITE REINFORCEMENTS

The in-plane flow of fluids through dense fibrous woven reinforcements was studied to aid the development of constitutive models for use in simulations of composite fabrication by resin transfer molding. As a f irst part of this effort, both one-dimensional and radial flow experim ents were conducted with Newtonian fluids in several woven glass fabri cs. Analysis of tbe one-dimensional flow experiments shows that the tw o experimental techniques are often, but not always, consistent, and b oth techniques suggest a relationship between the physical structure o f the reinforcement and the mathematical structure of the permeability tensor. Preform features at the laminar and interlaminar scales were hypothesized to influence the experimental results.