Visualization of resin impregnation through opaque reinforcement textiles during the vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding process using ultrasound
Journal of Composite Materials
Published online on April 11, 2013
Abstract
In this study, an ultrasound visualization system has been set up for in-situ monitoring of the resin flow impregnating through opaque carbon fiber reinforcements during the vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding. The flow front advancement through the carbon fabrics covered by a bagging film can be identified and visualized by the high frequency B (brightness) mode ultrasound imaging technique. The resin advancement in the opaque carbon fabrics has turned out to form a non-uniform plug flow along the pressure gradient direction and the potential void formation can be observed from the mesoscopic resin flow behavior: the inter-tow regions have been preferentially filled by the resin fluid and the fiber tow region behaves as a sink that probably remain as a void defect. The local unsaturated transient velocity of the resin flow has been also evaluated, which is particularly important in understanding saturation behaviors in dual-scale fabrics and is hardly measurable by other means. In spite of the hardware limitations on the resolution, the proposed ultrasound visualization system can provide a less expensive and portable visualization tool to understand the microstructure of opaque reinforcements and monitor the resin flow behavior during the vacuum-assisted resin transfer molding process in the industrial composite manufacturing environment.