MEASUREMENT OF FIBER ORIENTATION IN SHORT-FIBER COMPOSITES USING DIGITAL IMAGE-PROCESSING

A technique that uses digital image processing to measure the orientation distribution function of the fibers in a plane of a short-fiber composite is described in this work. Other orientation descriptors, such as the fiber orientation parameter, can be calculated from the measured fiber orientation distribution function. In this technique, the edges of the fibers in a digital image of the composite are first identified. Then. using Sobel operators, the orientation of the gradient vector is determined at each pixel on the edge of a fiber. This information is used to calculate the fiber orientation distribution function. The advantages of digital imaging over photography and the simplicity of the algorithms make this technique advantageous over previously developed methods to measure fiber orientation.