An ultrasound-assisted resin transfer molding to improve the impregnation and dual-scale flow for carbon fiber reinforced resin composites

The imbalance of the dual-scale flow, i.e., microscopic intra-bundles and macroscopic inter-bundles flow, always generates voids in resin transfer molding (RTM) of composites, substantially weakening the mechanical performance. An ultrasound-assisted strategy to improve the impregnation and to balance dual-scale flow is promising to suppress the voids, while, it has still not been explored. Here, an ultrasound-assisted RTM for carbon fiber reinforced resin composites, realized by a self-developed device, is originally proposed. The influences of ultrasound vibration on the carbon fibers, resins, wettability, and impregnation process are systematically explored. Furthermore, the dual-scale flow, affected by the ultrasound vibration, is optimized. It is identified that the ultrasound vibration effectively reduces the viscosity of the resin and increases the roughness and surface activity of the fibers, hence significantly weakening the delayed impregnation in the intra-bundles, and speeding up the impregnation velocity in the inter-bundles. The reduction of the viscosity and the contact angle synergistically lowers the modified capillary number Ca*, hence balancing the dual-scale flow, while the excessively high impregnation velocity in the inter-bundles detrimentally enlarges Ca*, leading to the imbalance of the dual-scale flow. Accordingly, a critical ultrasound energy input (4 min of ultrasound vibration at the power range of 400–600 W) is figured out to achieve an optimal Ca*, providing a promising approach to suppress the flow-induced voids in composites manufacturing by RTM.