Relationship between microstructure and transverse permeability

The effect of the fiber microstructure on the fluid flow behavior was investigated. Simulations on the fiber models which have different fiber volume fractions and nearest inter-fiber spacing were performed to calculate the fiber permeability. The results reveal that the permeability is less sensitive to the nearest inter-fiber distance when the volume fraction is low. At the high volume fraction, the permeability declines with the decrease of the nearest inter-fiber spacing. The relation of permeability standard deviation, nearest inter-fiber spacing and volume fraction was studied. The standard deviation of permeability for different fiber microstructures depends only on the nearest inter-fiber spacing when the volume fraction is low, but it is determined by both the nearest inter-fiber spacing and the volume fraction at the high fiber volume fraction.