Trans‐plane fluid permeability measurement and its applications in liquid composite molding

Abstract This work discusses tow independent methods to measure and analyze the trans‐plane fjuid permeability of various fiber reinforcements. In the unidirectional flow method, the measured injection pressure and flow rate, together with a one‐dimensional Darcy's law were used to calculate the trans‐plane permeability of fiber mats was independent of flow rate only at low injection pressure. Flow‐induced fiber mat permeability change occurred when the injection pressure exceeded the clamping pressure. Measured permeability in conjunction with a three‐dimensional mold filling computer program was used to simulate the effect of stacking sequence for a combination of different fiber mats on the mold filling pattern. Finally, a method is proposed to simplify the simulation of a three‐dimensional flow through the fiber perform.