MEASUREMENT OF PLANAR ORIENTATION OF FIBERS FOR REINFORCED THERMOPLASTICS USING IMAGE-PROCESSING

The characteristics of fiber-reinforced thermoplastics depend on the q uantity and shape of fibers. The fiber-matrix separation and fiber ori entation are caused by the flow during a molding process. Then, the pr oduct tends to be nonhomogeneous and anisotropic. Hence, it is very im portant to clarify the relations between separation-orientation and mo lding conditions. In this paper, we propose the measurement method whi ch is called image intensity method for fiber orientation distribution by image processing. In order to examine the accuracy of intersection counting and image intensity methods, the fiber orientation of simula tion figure is measured using image processing. The image intensity me thod is rather accurate compared with the intersection counting method .