In-plane permeability changes of plain weave glass fabric induced by tufting

The presence of the tufts has direct influence on the permeability of textile preforms. In this paper, new insights are presented into the mechanisms responsible for changes to the in-plane permeability of tufted preforms according to three different tufting patterns relative to flow direction with a constant tufting distance. The saturated permeabilities are measured based on the rectilinear flow in a tool constituted by a steel base, a transparent PMMA top, and steel supports. Beforehand, the permeability measurements of textile preform composed of eight layers of plain weave glass fabric without tufting are conducted at three different cavity heights. The results show that the in-plane permeability values for the tufted preforms are lower than the permeability values of the preform without tufting. The paper reveals the significant influence of the tufting patterns on the permeability values for three different fibre volume fractions.