NONDESTRUCTIVE, NONCONTACT QUANTIFICATION OF CARBON FIBER ALIGNMENT AND ORIENTATION BY HIGH-SPEED MICROWAVE ELLIPSOMETRY FOR TAILORABLE FEEDSTOCK

Published

May 20, 2019

Author(s)

Nina Popovic, Shridar Yarlagadda, Dirk Heider, Edward Garboczi, Christian Long, Nathan Orloff

Abstract

Novel short-fiber composites facilitate the manufacture of tailorable feedstock for small formed parts. In these composites, the alignment and orientation of the short fibers must be controlled to achieve the desired composite properties. While there are several processing variables that can be correlated to alignment and orientation, there is a need for a fast, nondestructive, noncontact measurement technique to quantify local alignment and orientation in real time. Such control would enable real-time control of processing variables, resulting in higher quality composites. Here, we discuss high-speed microwave ellipsometry. To evaluate our approach, we measured five short- fiber composites samples made from a four-layer stack of carbon-fiber mats. These samples included one known control sample and four blind samples. The four blind samples were a control, a sample with all layers rotated by 5°, a sample with a single unknown layer rotated by 5°, and a sample a single unknown layer rotated by 15°. In this presentation, we will present our results and discuss a path for real-time, large-scale imaging.

Citation

Sampe Journal

Volume

1

Issue

2

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.33599/nasampe/s.19.1371

Local Download

Keywords

microwave, ellipsometry, carbon fiber, composite, short fibers, alignment, orientation

Citation

Popovic, N. , Yarlagadda, S. , Heider, D. , Garboczi, E. , Long, C. and Orloff, N. (2019), NONDESTRUCTIVE, NONCONTACT QUANTIFICATION OF CARBON FIBER ALIGNMENT AND ORIENTATION BY HIGH-SPEED MICROWAVE ELLIPSOMETRY FOR TAILORABLE FEEDSTOCK, Sampe Journal, [online], https://doi.org/10.33599/nasampe/s.19.1371, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=927563 (Accessed November 12, 2025)