Characterization and Modeling of Flax Fiber in Composite Processing

This book presents an experimental characterization of flax fiber and a modeling of the resin flow during the resin transfer molding process with flax preform. The change of diameter of flax fiber filament immersed in different test liquids was characterized using optical microscope. The sorption rate of the resin mass into the fiber filament immersed in the test liquids was also experimentally characterized using centrifuge test. A new permeability model was proposed to predict the permeability taking into account the fiber swell effect, regardless of test liquid and the model was validated by a comparison with the experimental measurement data. The wetting properties of flax fiber in contact with different test liquids were measured by capillary rise test using flax fiber yarn and a new model was established to obtain surface tension and contact angle by considering the fiber swell effect and the liquid sorption into the fiber filament. The unsaturated resin flow in the flax fiber preform was modeled by modifying the conventional mass conservation equation and Darcy’s law in order to take into account the effects of fiber swell and liquid sorption.