LAUSR

Plain-weave fabric is a kind of fiber preform which has been commonly used in resin transfer molding (RTM) to manufacture polymer composites. However, the edge area of plain-weave fabric is easy to shed yarns which will cause the uneven distribution of permeability between edge channel and center of mold in filling process of RTM. Meanwhile, the uneven distribution of permeability will cause the edge effect and seriously affect the final quality of composite materials. In this paper, a method to numerically calculate the permeability of edge channel which fully considers the edge area of plain-weave fabric is proposed. The experiment and simulation of edge effect in filling process are performed. The results show that the simulation of edge effect which applies the edge channel’s permeability calculated by this method are in good agreement with the experimental results. The research in this paper is meaningful to improve the accuracy of edge effect simulation so as to provide a reference for the design of mold structure.