Experimental investigation of particle filtration in compression resin transfer molding of advanced composites


Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Makina Mühendisliği Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2014

Öğrenci: TUĞÇE AYDİL DALKIRAN

Danışman: MERVE ERDAL ERDOĞMUŞ

Özet:

With the inclusion of particle fillers in advanced continuous fiber reinforced composites, issues such as impregnation with increased viscosity of the injected resin leading to high process pressures and possible nonhomogeneous/directional composite properties due to filtering of filler particles necessitate the study of the relations between processing parameters and the resulting particle distributions. In this study, the particle-resin interaction during compression resin transfer molding (CRTM) and resin transfer molding (RTM) of particle filled advanced composites is experimentally investigated to propose particle filtration models that can predict composite microstructure. For this purpose an experimental set-up is developed and composite specimens are produced using RTM and CRTM processes for different fiber volume fractions and particle concentrations. The produced specimens are characterized to obtain particle filler distributions along the composites. A nearly constant particle distribution profile along the flow direction was found, indicating little filtration in RTM however in CRTM, particle content in composite increased towards the end of the flow length in composite. To model particle filled resin impregnation, a Darcy law-based porous flow model, coupled with particle filtration kinetics is adapted to RTM and CRTM processes. An appropriate commercial software tool, Comsol Multiphysics® version 4.3 is used for numerical implementation and solution. The filtration kinetics of the model is adjusted with respect to the experimental results by tuning the model parameters to match simulated particle filler distributions with experimental ones.