PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF RADIAL FLOW PERMEABILITY VARIATION WITH THE COMPRESSION LEVEL OF 3D FABRICS

Abstract

During the last two decades, continuous efforts have been made in our research group to evaluate the damping capacity of soft, porous layers imbibed with liquids and subjected to normal impact. The effect is strongly related to the liquid permeability of structures and its variation with the level of compression. Recently, a new candidate material has been successfully tested for impact damping, namely a three-dimensional fabric. This paper presents preliminary experimental results obtained on a radial permeameter for a commercially available 3D fabric. Data analyses have shown a quasi-linear pressure variation with liquid velocity and excellent repeatability. Based on Darcy’s law for axi-symmetric in-plane flows, the variation of permeability with the thickness of the layer was obtained. The experimental results have been confronted with the predictions of the well-known Kozeny-Carman equation.