CAPILLARY EFFECTS IN VACUUM ASSISTED RESIN TRANSFER MOLDING WITH NATURAL FIBERS

GASTÓN FRANCUCCI; ANALÍA VÁZQUEZ; EXEQUIEL S. RODRIGUEZ; EDU RUIZ

Ascona

Conferencia; 10th International Conference on Flow Processes in Composite Materials; 2010

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

Automotive industry has shown in the last years a growing interest inthe use of green composites. Fibrous reinforcements made from natural resources havethe advantage of being renewable, abundant, and cheaper than synthetic fibers and posecomparable mechanical properties. Liquid Composite Molding (LCM) techniques haveproved to be suitable for processing natural fibers. Nevertheless, few issues still to beresolved, such as fiber impregnation and bonding to the polymeric matrix. Capillaryeffects have shown to be key in the impregnation of the fibers, mainly when the resin isinfused or injected at low pressure. In the case of natural fibers, important capillaryeffects take place during impregnation due to the hollow structure of the fibers, smalldiameter and molecular polarity. In this work, the capillary pressure of a woven jutefabric was measured for different fiber volume fractions and its effect on permeabilitywas studied. Permeability tests were conducted with different fluids in order to evaluatethe impact of the chemical nature of the fluids in the infiltration process. This researchgives an insight on capillary effects occurred during LCM with natural fibers.