PERMEABILITY CHARACTERIZATION OF NATURAL REINFORCEMENTS IN RTM

EXEQUIEL S. RODRIGUEZ; ANALÍA VÁZQUEZ

Florianópolis, Brasil

Congreso; PPS 2004 AMÉRICAS REGIONAL MEETING; 2004

Polymer Processing Society

This study investigates the permeability–porosity relationship for glass and natural fiber mats. The estimation of permeability–porosity relationship for glass mats is not new and has been investigated before by several authors, but in the present work the same relationship was discovered for natural fibers. The experimental permeability values were fitted by the Carman-Kozeny equation with two fitting parameters: the Kozeny constant and the exponent of the porosity. The obtained permeability for the natural fiber mats shows higher values than glass fiber mat.