Factors effecting on the wicking of epoxy resin in capillaries of unidirectional fiber bundles

Understanding the wetting behavior of resin in fiber assemblies is critical for predicting and improving the fabrication performance of composites. According to capillary rise method, the wicking flow in unidirectional fiber bundles was characterized through measuring the mass gain in fibers at different time. The effects of many factors on the wicking performance of epoxy resin in unidirectional fiber bundles were investigated, such as the volume fraction of fibers, the type of fibers, the temperature of resins and the sizing on fibers. The experimental data suggest that the wicking velocity of resins could be increased with the increase of fiber volume fraction, with enhancing temperature and by removing the sizing on S-2 glass fibers.