Unsaturated flow behavior in double-scale porous reinforcement for liquid composite molding processes

We investigate the unsaturated resin flow behavior in a dual scale porosity preform by observing the pressure distribution and the void content. The experimental data show that the pressure profile in the unsaturated flow is nonlinear with positive curvature whereas that in the saturated flow is linear as expected from the classical Darcy's law. To address this issue, the governing equation for mass conservation is modified by introducing a mass sink term. Eventually, it has been found that the discrepancy between the unsaturated and saturated permeability values comes from a misinterpretation of the pressure gradient at the flow front in the unsaturated permeability measurement method and the permeability for a given preform is a unique value regardless of measurement method or flow condition. Based on this investigation, the ratio of unsaturated permeability to saturated permeability is represented as a dimensionless number in terms of void content. © The Author(s) 2016.