MONITORING VOID FORMATION DURING LIQUID COMPOSITE MOLDING BY IN-SITU X-RAY COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY

Polymer composites manufactured by liquid molding contain voids, which may have several origins. Porosity patterns in composites are usually characterized ‘postmortem’ via X-ray computed tomography (XCT), which gives only limited information about the void formation mechanisms. In this work, a new lab-based XCT experiment is proposed for the dynamic in-situ monitoring of void formation in thick fiberreinforced polymer composites produced by vacuum infusion. In particular, the method makes it possible to follow the evolution of void volume fraction, size and location during the curing or polymerization of the infused resin within a fibrous preform.