Journal Article

Methods for fibre orientation analysis of X-ray tomography images of steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC)

Herrmann, Heiko, Kallonen, Aki, Pastorelli, Emiliano, Suuronen, Jussi-Petteri

2016

Overview

One of the most important factors to determine the mechanical properties of a fibre composite material is the orientation of the fibres in the matrix. This paper presents Hessian matrix-based algorithms to retrieve the orientation of individual fibres out of steel fibre reinforced cementitious composites samples scanned with an X-ray computed tomography scanner. The software implemented with the algorithms includes a massive data filtering component to remove noise from the data-sets and prepare them correctly for the analysis. Due to its short computational times and limited need for user intervention, the software is able to process and analyse large batches of data in short periods and provide results in a variety of visual and numerical formats. The application and comparison of these algorithms lead to further insight into the material behaviour. In contrast to the usual assumption that the fibres act only along their main axis, it is shown that the contribution of hooked-end fibres in other directions may be noticeable. This means that fibres, depending on their shape, should act as orthotropic inclusions. The methods can be used by research laboratories and companies on an everyday basis to obtain fibre orientations from samples, which in turn can be used in research, to study stress–strain behaviour, as input to constitutive models or for quality assurance.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Algorithms / Behavior / business enterprises / Cement reinforcements / Characterization and Evaluation of Materials / Chemistry and Materials Science / Classical Mechanics / Composite materials / Computed tomography / Computer programs / computer software / concrete / Constitutive models / Crystallography and Scattering Methods / data collection / Fiber composites / Fiber orientation / Fibers / Hessian matrices / Inclusions / Laboratories / Materials Science / Mathematical models / Mechanical properties / Methods / Original Paper / Polymer Sciences / Quality assurance / quality control / Reinforced concrete / Reinforcing steels / Software / Solid Mechanics / steel / Steel fiber reinforced concretes / Steel fibers / Tomography / X ray imagery / X-radiation