In-plane permeability measurements on fiber reinforcements by the multi-cavity parallel flow technique

This report discusses the advantages and drawbacks of the multi-cavity parallel flow technique for permeability measurements. An experimental series with repeated measurements on material from the same roll shows that the repeatability of the technique is very good considering the manufacturing variability of the fabric. The measured standard deviation in the repeatability study is about 10%. It is, however, shown that the permeability can vary considerably- between reinforcements of similar geometry. Furthermore, computer simulations were used to estimate the errors when highly anisotropic materials are oriented at an angle to the material principal direction in the parallel flow technique. The conclusion based on the simulations is that the length to width ratio of the cavity should be larger than the anisotropy of the reinforcement for an acceptable error.