Full field monitoring of the resin flow and laminate properties during the resin infusion process

Quentin Govignon (1) , S. Bickerton (1) , J. Morris (2) , P.A. Kelly (1)

1 CACM - Centre for Advanced Composite Materials, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
2 Department of Computer Science [Auckland]

The resin infusion process (a.k.a. VARTM, SCRIMP) has developed as a low cost method for manufacturing large fibre reinforced plastic parts. This process still presents some challenges to industry with regards to reliability and repeatability, resulting in trial and error development being expensive and inefficient. This paper describes a fully instrumented resin infusion setup, providing preliminary experimental data acquired while varying influential parameters during the filling and post-filling stages. The laminate per-meability is a strong function of the fibre volume fraction which can be determined from the laminate thickness. To assess the variation of the volume fraction and permeability, full field thickness variations have been monitored using a digital speckle stereophotogrammetry system developed for this purpose. In-mould resin pressures, flow front progression, and incoming resin flow rate were also measured. A selection of four experiments is presented here for discussion.

Domaines: Matériaux

Quentin Govignon, S. Bickerton, J. Morris, P.A. Kelly. Full field monitoring of the resin flow and laminate properties during the resin infusion process. Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 2008, 39 (9), pp.1412-1426. ⟨10.1016/j.compositesa.2008.05.005⟩. ⟨hal-02070810⟩