Impregnation behaviour of regenerated cellulose fabric Elium® composite: Experiment, simulation and analytical solution

Abstract

Filling time and volume fill prediction of long and complex parts produced using the method of resin infusion is of prominent importance. Fibre volume fraction, reinforcement type and composite laminate thickness significantly affect the manufacturing behaviour. It is crucial to have an estimate of fabrication parameters such as filling time. The PAM-RTM (resin transfer moulding) commercial software package makes it possible to characterize the production parameters in connection with lab scale experiments. In this work, simulation tools demonstrate an accurate prediction of the resin infusion process of pulp-based fabrics and characterization of the dynamic phenomena are verified using the analytical solution for a simple part. The accurate prediction for fabrication of pulp-based fabric Elium® composite demonstrated here can be beneficial for scaling up the composite part size and production speed. The filling time was accurately predicted until 270 s for the volume fill of 10–100% using the software tool and analytical solution. This proves the rayon fabric processing capabilities as a reinforcement for industry related projects and opens for the possibility of infusion process optimization.

Keywords

• Thermoplastic resin
• Pulp-based fabric
• Bio-based fiber composite processing