In-situ sensor monitoring of resin film infusion of advanced fiber architecture preforms
- College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA (United States); and others
Resin transfer molding (RTM) of advanced fiber architecture stitched preforms is being developed as a smart cost-effective manufacturing technique for fabricating damage tolerant composite structures with geometrically complex reinforcements. Dry textile preforms are infiltrated with resin and cured in a single step process, thus eliminating separate prepreg manufacture and ply-by-ply lay-up. The number of parameters that must be controlled during infiltration and cure make trial-and-error methods of process cycle optimization extremely inefficient. In situ cure monitoring sensors and an analytical processing model are a superior alternative for the determination of optimum processing cycles, quality assurance, and automated process control. Resin transfer molding experiments have been conducted in a manufacturing plant with a reactive epoxy resin and carbon fabric preforms. Frequency dependent electromagnetic sensing (FDEMS) was used to monitor in situ resin position, viscosity and degree of cure in situ in the mold during the Resin Transfer Molding infiltration and cure process. A science based multi-dimensional model of Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) was used to predict the infiltration behavior, as well as viscosity and degree of cure as the resin flows and cures in the dry textile preform.
- OSTI ID:
- 127039
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950402-; TRN: 95:006086-1133
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 209. American Chemical Society (ACS) national meeting, Anaheim, CA (United States), 2-6 Apr 1995; Other Information: PBD: 1995; Related Information: Is Part Of 209th ACS national meeting; PB: 2088 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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