Study On The Permeability Of Continuous Basalt Fibre Reinforcement And Its Performance And Resin Flow Front Detector Device For Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding

Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM) is a low cost, advanced composite manufacturing process, which is derived from Resin Transfer Molding (RTM). VARTM process is getting more attention due to good product quality, less influence of the operator's skill in the quality of final product, high repeatability and environment-protection.In VARTM techniques, the liquid resin has to flow a long distance to impregnate the dry fibres. The permeability is the measure for the resistance of the fibre reinforcement to the resin flow. Accurate permeability data is essential for the optimization of composite manufacturing process, arrangement of the inlet and outlet in the mold, reducing the production time and improvement of the composite part quality.Continuous basalt fibre, comes from raw basalt stone, is a new advanced material in high performance composites. The properties of basalt fibre is better than that of glass fibres in the aspects of mechanical properties, bearing heat, chemistry stability, anti-friction etc. Basalt fibre may replace glass fibres and carbon fibres in some applications in the future.In the VARTM process, the permeability of several types of basalt fibre reinforcements was investigated. The experimental results showed that the effect of the injection pressure, viscosity and the type of test fluid, the different structures and different number of layers of reinforcements, various combinations of different fabrics on the permeability. The results will play an important role in optimizing the VARTM process and improving the performance of product made by VARTM process.There are two key steps in VARTM process: mold filling and resin cure, which were influenced by various factors. An effective method to solve the problem is to detect and simulate the process with sensor during the composite manufacturing. In this paper, a resin flow front detector device, including data acquisition and data analyses, was developed. The filling time on the surface and through thickness of the reinforcements can be obtained during the VARTM process on the test platform. The detector device was verified by comparison of permeability test and detecting data. The control and simulation of the experiment was done very well which will be very helpful to study and optimize the process.Finally, the performance of basalt fibre composites made by VARTM were measured, which will give good contribution for the application of basalt fibre composites in various sections.