Investigation on the Mold Compressive Stage of Compression Resin Transfer Molding by Using In-situ Measurement of Permeability Variation of Fiber Preform

A compression resin transfer molding (CRTM) process is a very useful composite manufacturing process owing to its high performance and productivity. A permeability variation of fiber preform with respect to fiber volume fraction was investigated by changing cavity thickness of mold in the one dimensional saturated flow in order to analyze resin flow during compression stage in a compression resin transfer molding (CRTM) process. In-situ variation of permeability was measured by tracking the pressure and flow rate while changing volume fractions of unidirectional carbon fabric from 45 % to 55 %, which was used to investigate the effect of fiber volume fraction and the additional flows on resin flow in the CRTM process. It is expected that this work would be helpful to understand the mechanism of resin flow in CRTM and optimize the process conditions such as compression thickness of mold, injection pressure, and mold clamping force.