A Numerical Analysis of Resin Flow in Woven Fabrics: Effect of Local Tow Curvature on Dual-Scale Permeability

Permeability is a crucial flow parameter in liquid composite moulding (LCM), which is required to predict fibre impregnation, void formation and resin back flow. This work investigates the dual-scale (micro- and meso-) nature of permeability during resin infusion into woven fabric by incorporating the intra tow flow where the degree of local tow curvature (tow/yarn undulation) is taken into account. The mesoscopic permeability of a dual-scale porous media in a unit cell is estimated using Darcy’s law, where the Gebart analytical model is applied for the intra tow flow in longitudinal and transverse directions with respect to distinct fibre packing arrangements. The results suggest that for a low fibre volume fraction (≤42%), the degree of local curvature at the mesoscale can be neglected. However, for a high fibre volume fraction (>42%) and a higher fibre bundle curvature, the proposed model should be adopted, since the resin flow is affected by a mesoscopic tow curvature that could result in around 14% error in predicting permeability. It is shown that the permeability results of the current study are in good agreement with and in the range of the retrieved available experimental data from the literature.