STUDY OF SATURATED AND UNSATURATED PERMEABILITY IN NATURAL FIBER FABRICS

GASTON FRANCUCCI; EXEQUIEL RODRIGUEZ; ANALÍA VAZQUEZ

Montreal

Conferencia; FPCM-9 - The 9th International Conference on Flow Processes in Composite Materials; 2008

Natural fibers present some advantages which made them useful in composite parts: reduced dependence on non-renewable resources, less wear on tooling, ease of handling, lower health risk for the producer workers than glass fibers, better thermal and sound insulation properties, low density, cost about one third of glass fibers. RTM process can be use to manufacture natural fiber composites, but in order to perform an optimum process design and maximize the part quality, it is very important to have knowledge of the flow pattern during the injection process. The key parameter that governs the flow in the fiber bed is the permeability, together with the fluid viscosity. In this work, the saturated and unsaturated permeability of woven-bidirectional jute fabrics are studied for different porosities of the fibrous reinforcement. Also the fluid absorption by the natural fibers and its effect on the permeability is analyzed. It was found, as expected, that permeability increases as the porosity does, and that saturated permeability was greater than unsaturated permeability. This difference tends to vanish when porosity reaches values of about 75% or higher. It was found also, that jute fibers absorb large amounts of fluid. The fluid absorption affects flow behavior and reduces both saturated and unsaturated permeability values.