Geometrical characterization and micro-structural modeling of short steel fiber composites

Short steel fiber reinforced polymer composites are a newly introduced class of materials which combines outstanding properties of stiffness and ductility. The first step in modeling composite mechanical properties is the generation of a representative volume element (RVE) which accurately describes the distinctive microstructure of the material. Injection molded short steel fiber composites exhibit a complex microstructure due to the three-dimensional orientation, waviness and entanglements of the fibers. The present work proposes a data structure for description of the RVE geometry and algorithms for RVE random generation. The micro-structure of short steel fiber reinforced polycarbonate samples was determined using X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and the model input parameters were identified using a specialized image processing methodology, based on the Mimics software package. Model generated RVEs were satisfactory compared qualitatively as well as quantitatively against the real micro-CT reconstructed volumes.