Vacuum infusion manufacturing and experimental characterization of Kevlar/epoxy composites

Abstract

Epoxy/Kevlar composites have been manufactured by conventional Vacuum Infusion process and the Pulse Infusion technique. Pulse Infusion allows to control the pressure of the vacuum bag on the dry fiber reinforcement by using a proper designed pressure distributor that induces a pulsed transverse action and promotes the through thickness resin flow. The realized composite panel have been mechanically characterized by performing tensile and short beam shear tests according with the ASTM D3039 and ASTM D2344/D 2344M standard respectively in order to investigate the effect of Pulse Infusion on the tensile strength and ILSS.