Effect of part thickness variation on the mold filling time in vacuum infusion process

Abstract

An experimental setup was used to fairly compare mold filling times in vacuum infusion and resin transfer molding, and a 9.5% shorter mold filling time in vacuum infusion was observed than in resin transfer molding. The setup was also used to conduct compaction and permeability characterization experiments, and the results were used in a simplified vacuum infusion model, which is more straightforward to solve than the conventional full and coupled models in the literature. Simulated filling time in vacuum infusion was 31% shorter than in resin transfer molding. The faster resin flow in vacuum infusion is explained by the fact that the thickness in the wetted upstream region increases with time, and thus the effective permeability in that region increases.