Local curvature for 3D-characterization of fiber-reinforced materials

With the availability of micro-computer tomographs (mCT) both in industry and research, there is a growing demand for quantitative analysis of materials microstructures. One class of materials for which this technology is employed is the class of fiber reinforced materials such as glass and carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (GRP and CRP). The geometric properties of their fiber systems have a significant impact on these materials macroscopic mechanical properties. The fiber density and direction distribution are already accessible, see e.g. (Wirjadi et al. 2014). Further mechanically relevant parameters include the fiber length distribution and depending on the material fiber- fiber contacts. The analysis of the fiber lengths has also been addressed in the literature, e.g. (S alaberger et al. 2011), but such approaches rely on a segmentation of individual fibers. This is problematic firstly due to often insufficient resolutions combined with high fiber densities, and secondly due to a limited field of view of mCT scanners, which does not allow for a correct estimation of fiber lengths even for perfectly segmented fibers especially in the case of long fibers.