Water diffusion in RTM textile composites for aircraft applications

This paper presents a first step towards the understanding of water diffusion in RTM textile composite materials for aircraft applications and focuses on the development of experimental and numerical approaches to characterize the diffusion kinetics within the material. The method consists in making samples which are representative of the materials architecture and carrying out gravimetric tests on such samples. Analysis of results with the aid of a diffusion model reconstructing the architecture of the samples helps identifying the diffusion behaviour of the material.