Permeability Characterization of Different Architectural Fabrics

Abstract

The transient permeabilities and steady-state permeabilities of five different architectural glass fabrics were measured using one-dimensional experiments. The fabric architectures include 3-dimensional structure, random distributed fiber mat with stitches and knitted fabrics. The influence of the test liquids on the permeability measurements was investigated us3ing corn syrup, vinyl ester resin and epoxy resin. The experimental results show that the influence of the test liquids on permeability measurement is small if the simulated test fluids are properly selected. The relationship between permeability and porosity was also investigated. The experimental results indicate that the relationship between permeability and porosity can be expressed as an approximated exponential function. The permeability decreases dramatically as the porosity is reduced to about 0.65. The transient permeability of all fabrics used in the experiments exhibits the characteristic that it increases as the flow front moves forward under the experimental conditions, but the evolution is different. It reflects the influences of the fabric architecture on fabric permeability. The experimental results also point out that reproducible results can be obtained using one-dimensional permeability measurement technique provided that the fiber reinforcements are prepared very carefully and the edge effects are minimized.