Analysis of fibre orientation distribution in short fibre reinforced polymers: A comparison between optical and tomographic methods

The fibre orientation distribution in a material sample of short fibre reinforced polyamide extracted from an injection moulded notched plate was analysed using two different methods, one based on microcomputed tomography and the Mean Intercept Length concept and the other based on the classical optical section method. The two methods were compared in terms of the preferred fibre orientation at a chosen position, and the agreement was found to be excellent provided the correct section plane was chosen for the optical method. The optical method was applied to different section planes to ascertain the best choice. Comparisons with the optical method, which can provide the full fibre orientation distribution, confirm that the analysis based on the MIL concept is capable of capturing important information about the fibre orientation.