The in-plane angle determined using an optical reflection microscope with an image analyzer is ambiguous, because the same elliptical image would be obtained for a fiber. A method of determining the three-dimensional (3D) fiber orientation distribution using the scanning acoustic microscopy (SAM) image of an elliptical mark and interference fringe is proposed. The interference fringe appearing in the composite in the direction of a fiber is observed by SAM. One can easily determine the in-plane angle without ambiguity by adopting this information of interference fringes. It is shown that this technique is effective for the determination of the 3D fiber orientation distribution in plaque and cylindrical composite parts.
Brooks, R. (1997). Materials Properties Modeling and Design of Short Fibre Composite, In: Prapathanssiou, T.D. and Guell, D.C. (eds), Flow-induced Alignment in Composite Materials, 293 pp., Woodhead Pub., England .
2.
Advani, S.G. and Tucker III, C.L. (1987). The Use of Tensors to Describe and Predict Fiber Orientation in Short Fiber Composites , Journal of Rheology, 31(8): 751-784 .
3.
Chung, D.H. and Kwon, T.H. (2002). Fiber Orientation in the Processing of Polymer Composites , Korea-Australia Rheology, 14(4): 175-188 .
4.
Vincent, M. , Devilers, E. and Agassant, J.-F. (1997). Fibre Orientation Calculation in Injection Moulding of Reinforced Thermoplastics , Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, 73: 317-326 .
5.
Phan-thien, N. and Zheng, R. (1997). Macroscopic Modeling of the Evolution of Fibre Orientation During Flow, In: Prapathanssiou, T.D. and Guell, D.C. (eds), 77, Flow-Induced Alignment in Composite Materials”, 230 pp., Woodhead Pub., England .
6.
Clarke, A.R. , Davidson, N.C. and Archenhold, G. (1997). Mesostructural Characterisation of Aligned Fibre Composites, In: Prapathanssiou, T.D. and Guell, D.C. (eds), Flow-Induced Alignment in Composite Materials, 230 pp., Woodhead Pub., England .
7.
Hine, P.J. , Davidson, N.C. , Duckett, R.A. , Clarke, A.R. and Ward, I.M. (1966). Hydrostatically Extruded Glass-fiber-reinforced Polyoxymethylene . In: The Development of Fiber and Matrix Orientation, Polymer Composites, 17: 720-729 .
8.
VerWeyst, B. E. , Tucker III, C.L. , Foss, P.H. and O’Gara, J. F. (1999). Fiber Orientation in 3-D Injection Molded Features , International Polymer Processing, IXV: 409-420 .
9.
Vahlund, C.F. and Gebart, B.R. (2001). Analysis of an Image Processing Method for Fiber Orientation in Polymer Composites , Polymer Composites, 22: 327-336 .
10.
McGrath, J.J. and Wille, J.M. (1995). Determination of 3D Fiber Orientation Distribution in Thermoplastic Injection Molding , Composites Science and Technology, 53: 133-143 .
11.
Lee, K.S. , Lee, S.W. , Chung, K. , Kang, T.J. and Youn, J.R. (2003). Measurement and Numerical Simulation of Three-dimensional Fiber Orientation States in Injection-molded Short Fiber-Reinforced Plastics , Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 88: 500-509 .
12.
Zainudin, E.S. , Sapuan, S.M. , Sulaiman, S. and Ahmad, M.M.H.M. (2002). Fiber Orientation of Short Fiber Reinforced Injection Molded Thermoplastic Composites: A Review , Journal of Injection Molding Technology, 6(1): 1-10 .
13.
Avérous, L. , Quantin, J.C. , Crespy, A. and Lafon, D. (1997). Evolution of the Three-dimensional Orientation Distribution of Glass Fibers in Injected Isotactic Polypropylene , Polymer Engineering and Science, 37(2): 329-337 .
14.
Avérous, L. , Quantin, J.C. , Lafon, D. and Crespy, A. (1995). Determination of 3D Fiber Orientations in Reinforced Thermoplastics, using Scanning Electron Microscopy , Acta Stereol., 14(1): 69-74 .
15.
Dunn, M.L. and Ledbetter, H. (2000). Micromecanically-based Acoustic Characterization of the Fiber Orientation Distribution Function of Morphologically Textured Short-fiber Composites: Prediction of Thermomechanical And Physical Properties , Materials Science and Engineering, A285: 56-61 .
16.
Watanabe, Y. and Nakamura, T. (2001). Microstructures and Wear Resistances of Hybrid Al-(Al3Ti+Al3Ni) FGMs Fabricated By a Centrifugal Method , Intermetallics, 9: 33-43 .
17.
Watanabe, Y. (2002). Evaluation of Fiber Orientation in Ferromagnetic Short-fiber Reinforced Composites by Magnetic Anisotropy , Journal of Composite Materials, 36: 915-923 .
18.
Watanabe, Y. and Fuji, T. (2003). Experimental Study on Magnetic Torque Measurement to Estimate Fiber Orientation in Fe-fiber-reinforced Composites , Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., 42: L391-L393 .
19.
Kawamura, M. , Morita, S. and Sanomura, Y. (2004). Determination of 3D Fiber Orientation Distribution in Short-fiber Reinforced Thermoplastics using Scanning Acoustic Microscopy, submitted to Composites Science and Technology .
20.
Lisy, F. , Hiltner, A. , Baer, E. , Katz, J.L. and Meunier, A. (1994). Application of Scanning Acoustic Microscopy to Polymeric Materials , Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 52: 329-352 .
21.
Bechtold, G. , Gaffney, K. M. , Botsis, J. and Friedrich, K. (1998). Fibre Orientation in an Injection Moulded Specimen by Ultrasonic Backscattering , Composites Part A, 29A: 743-748 .
