Experimental investigation on the accuracy of XCT measurement of fiber length in fiber reinforced polymers

X-ray computed tomography (XCT) allows performing non-destructive measurements of fibers in fiber-reinforced polymeric materials. The accurate evaluation of fiber orientation and fiber length distribution is particularly useful as these factors have a strong influence on physical and mechanical properties of such materials. XCT data is already successfully used for fiber orientation analysis, whereas the fiber length measurement is more complex as it requires the individual fibers to be identified and segmented. Software tools able to cope with such tasks are available, but the accuracy of XCT fiber length measurement has not been thoroughly investigated so far. In this work, an experimental methodology was developed to determine the accuracy of XCT based fiber length measurements, using a reference object that was specifically designed, produced and calibrated for this purpose.