A Method for Rapid Determination of Fiber Orientation in Reinforced Composites at Lab and Component Scale

Abstract

Thermal and mechanical response of the fiber reinforced polymeric, metallic, and ceramic composites are strongly dependent on reinforcement fiber orientation and matrix resin rich zones within a composite. In many manufacturing techniques the final orientation is an outcome of the process and thus, necessitates quantification after formation to validate the material performance to design specifications. Current orientation measurement techniques are laborious, destructively invasive, expensive to implement, and are limited to small spatial domains. This creates a significant limitation in the ability to validate performance at the part scale where predictive capability is challenging and a barrier to market entry, limiting the use of light weight, energy efficient glass and carbon fiber reinforced composite materials for structural applications. Hence, there is an immediate need for rapid, non-destructive fiber or fiber bundle orientation evaluation for large spatial domains, including whole parts, for expeditious prototyping, composite engineering, and quality assessment to bring novel fiber reinforced composites to wind, compressed gas storage, infrastructure and automotive markets. A novel method is developed by the authors using a custom Thermal Digital Image Correlation (TDIC) method with which one can image a fiber reinforced composite materials including epoxy, vinyl ester, polyester, phenolic, or thermoplastic resin with carbon fiber, glass fiber, basalt fiber or natural fiber reinforcements.