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Trial infusions

Infusion trials

The nice thing about composites is that you can create your own materials with the properties required for the application. This also means that we have to do infusion trials for each project to ensure that the CVI method will work properly for the material combinations chosen, in this case a layup of carbon reinforcement infused with epoxy. The reasons for the trial infusions are:

Measure the reinforcement properties that need to be input in the flow analysis software;
Verify proper impregnation of the reinforcement and - in case of a sandwich - make sure that the reinforcement on both sides of the core wets out properly.
Obtain test panels for mechanical testing (strength/stiffness and destructive testing).

The tests were done on a glass plate to allow visual inspection of what happens at the mould side of the sandwich. This will not be visible during infusion of hull or deck, so we must be absolutely sure that the fabric will wet out properly there as well. Actually, we balance the flow by selecting proper materials, based on the physics of the process and use the trial infusion to validate this. If we would have to do this by trial and error, it would require a lot of tests and even when a combination would work we would never be completely sure.

Use the controls below the image to navigate through the photographs.

For the test shown in the photographs, three samples were chosen:

The 10 mm thick single skin keel reinforcement
Two samples of the sandwich below the waterline with two different foam types.

As you can see in the photographs, the thick laminate fills slow but steady. The sample in the middle has the foam core which has been selected for the fabrication of the hull. It shows a nice balance between flow on both sides (actually, the resin at the mould side laminate flows a little bit faster, which allows visual control during the infusion). The third sample showed uncontrolled flow behaviour (lots of area's with trapped air) due to grooves in the foam that are too large. This test was only done for instructive purposes: to show that this type of core does not work for this kind of application.