Short glass fibre injection moulded composites, used in interior and exterior automotive parts, are exposed to complex stress states, for example during a crash. As the fibre scale dominates the composite’s material properties, numerical models need to account for the local fibre orientation. In recent years, mould flow simulation results have been exploited to predict the fibre orientations for finite element models, albeit with limited accuracy. Alternatively, X-ray computed tomography can be used to directly image and analyse fibre orientations. Traditionally, achieving the necessary resolution to image individual fibres restricts the imaging to small regions of the component. However, this study takes advantage of recent advancements in imaging and image analysis to overcome this limitation. As a result, it introduces, for the first time, a reliable, fast, and automated fibre orientation mapping for a full component based on image analysis at the individual fibre level; even for cases where the pixel size is significantly larger than the fibre diameter. By scanning at lower resolutions, a drastically larger volume of interest can be achieved. The resulting fibre orientation analysis and mapping algorithm, based on X-ray computed tomography, is well matched to the level of information required for automotive crash modelling with a standard element-size of a few millimetres. The entire process, encompassing image acquisition, image analysis and fibre orientation mapping, can be directly integrated into an industrial full component application in a matter of hours.

中文翻译：

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低分辨率/大体积 X 射线计算机断层扫描的短纤维聚合物复合材料部件的纤维取向分布函数图

用于汽车内外部件的短玻璃纤维注塑复合材料会暴露在复杂的应力状态下，例如在碰撞过程中。由于纤维尺度主导复合材料的材料特性，数值模型需要考虑局部纤维取向。近年来，模流模拟结果已被用来预测有限元模型的纤维取向，尽管精度有限。或者，X 射线计算机断层扫描可用于直接成像和分析纤维方向。传统上，实现对单个纤维进行成像所需的分辨率会将成像限制在组件的小区域。然而，这项研究利用成像和图像分析的最新进展来克服这一限制。因此，它首次引入了基于单纤维级别图像分析的完整组件的可靠、快速和自动化的纤维取向映射；即使对于像素尺寸明显大于纤维直径的情况也是如此。通过以较低分辨率扫描，可以获得更大的感兴趣体积。由此产生的基于 X 射线计算机断层扫描的纤维取向分析和映射算法与标准单元尺寸为几毫米的汽车碰撞建模所需的信息水平非常匹配。整个过程，包括图像采集、图像分析和纤维取向映射，可以在几个小时内直接集成到工业全组件应用中。