Capillary Effects in Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding with Natural Fibers

GASTON FRANCUCCI; ANALÍA VAZQUEZ; EXEQUIEL RODRIGUEZ; EDU RUIZ

Ascona

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

Automotive industry has shown in the last years a growing interest in the use of green composites. Fibrous reinforcements made from natural resources have the advantage of being renewable, abundant, and cheaper than synthetic fibers and pose comparable mechanical properties. Liquid Composite Molding (LCM) techniques have proved to be suitable for processing natural fibers. Nevertheless, few issues still to be resolved, such as fiber impregnation and bonding to the polymeric matrix. Capillary effects have shown to be key in the impregnation of the fibers, mainly when the resin is infused or injected at low pressure. In the case of natural fibers, important capillary effects take place during impregnation due to the hollow structure of the fibers, small diameter and molecular polarity. In this work, the capillary pressure of a woven jute fabric was measured for different fiber volume fractions and its effect on permeability was studied. Permeability tests were conducted with different fluids in order to evaluate the impact of the chemical nature of the fluids in the infiltration process. This research gives an insight on capillary effects occurred during LCM with natural fibers.