Defects and challenges of VARTM

A dry spot is an area of the composite part that is not saturated with the matrix material (e.g., thermoset resin). In a VARTM process, the vacuum 

The second cause for dry spot formation is that the filling process could be too slow to completely fill the mold before the resin becomes too viscous to flow. To accelerate the infusion speed, one may consider using more flow distribution layers, inj ection ports and vents. Alternatively, one may also consider slowing the resin curing process by using fewer curing accelerators or 

Experimental results Processing time (mirrored images) 

Experimental results processing time (mirrored images) --------------------- 

6 The cross-section microscope picture shows a microvoid in a random E-glass fiber/unsaturated polyester FRP sample manufactured with VARTM. Also note that there are two different scales of flow pathways for the resin infusion (i.e., the large flow channel between fiber tows and the small flow channel between individual fibers in a fiber tow). 

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