DUAL-SCALE MODELLING OF FLOW THROUGH NON-UNIFORM BI-DIRECTIONAL FABRICS
A. Endruweit, C. Wong, Philip G. Harrison, Andrew C. Long · 2005
SUMMARY: In this study, material non-uniformities in bi-directional textile fabrics are described by variations in the fabric structure. Determination of the local permeability of a reinforcement textile is based on simulation of resin flow at the unit cell level (meso-scale). For the simulations, a detailed geometrical model of the three-dimensional unit cell configuration is spatially discretised and porosity and permeability are locally averaged on the grid. The calculated permeability values of the unit cell suggest that stochastic variation of the fibre configuration results in normally distributed permeability values. To determine the global fill time and the global flow patterns, the resin flow is simulated at the component level (macro-scale). Stochastic variations in the local permeability are described by continuous random fields. Simulation results indicate that the global permeability variations decrease with decreasing dimensions of the fabric inhomogeneities and with increasing mould dimensions.