Characterization of Permeability for Solid Freeform Fabricated Porous Structures

Abstract

Fused deposition based solid freeform fabrication technique allows manufacturing of potential functional preforms for subsequent Resin Transfer Molding. In this study, the transport property (permeability) of solid freeform fabricated porous preform geometries are investigated. Specifically the effect of pore geometry and network on the permeability is sought. Wet (saturated) permeability experiments were performed for various pore geometries with different viscosity liquids. For all fluids and preform structures investigated in this study, the porous flow exhibited Darcian behavior. The permeability is affected by changes in order of magnitude of fluid viscosity, the effect considerably significant in low porosity preforms. Current work concentrates on dry permeability measurement and development of numerical permeability models for ordered pore geometries (as produced through SFF) that will be compared with experimental results.