Measurements of the permeability of fiber preforms and applications

Preform permeability is a key issue in the design of molds and processes and in flow modeling. Because of capillary effects, the current methods for permeability measurement may bring large errors for aerospace applications when capillary effects are not neglected because of the high fiber contents. A new technique has been developed for the measurement of the permeabilities of anisotropic fiber preforms with a high fiber content. In this method, four pressure transducers are used to measure the pressure distribution in a radial flow. In this way, permeabilities in different directions can be determined.