A model for thermoplastic melt impregnation of fiber bundles during consolidation of powder-impregnated continuous fiber composites

Continuous fiber thermoplastic matrix composites were fabricated using a novel powder-impregnation process that combined vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) with compression molding. The resulting composite has an average fiber volume fraction of 65%. A model has been developed for the consolidation phase to predict the void fraction of the resulting composite. This model takes into account the fabric unit cell dimensions and material properties and assumes that tow permeability remains constant. The model is compared to experimental values for void fraction for samples prepared using a range of consolidation pressures and dwell times.