MODELING OF NONUNIFORM SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT OF FIBERS IN A CERAMIC-MATRIX COMPOSITE

In the unidirectional fiber reinforced composites, the spatial arrange ment of fibers is often non-uniform. These non-uniformities are linked to the processing conditions, and they affect the properties of the c omposite. In this contribution, a recently developed digital image ana lysis technique is used to quantify the non-uniform spatial arrangemen t of Nicalon fibers in a ceramic matrix composite (CMC). These quantit ative data are utilized to develop a six parameter computer simulated microstructure model that is statistically equivalent to the non-unifo rm microstructure of the CMC. The simulated microstructure can be util ized as a RVE for the micro-mechanical modeling studies. (C) 1997 Acta Metallurgica Inc.