Assessing Crimp of Fibres in Random Networks with 3D Imaging

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Hewavidana Y., BALCI M. N., Gleadall A., Pourdeyhimi B., Silberschmidt V. V., Demirci E.

Polymers, cilt.15, sa.4, 2023 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 15 Sayı: 4
  • Basım Tarihi: 2023
  • Doi Numarası: 10.3390/polym15041050
  • Dergi Adı: Polymers
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, Aerospace Database, Chemical Abstracts Core, Communication Abstracts, Compendex, Food Science & Technology Abstracts, INSPEC, Metadex, Directory of Open Access Journals, Civil Engineering Abstracts
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: crimped fibre, fibre crimp, non-crimped fibre, nonwovens, parametric algorithm, random fibrous network, X-ray micro-CT
  • Hacettepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

The analysis of fibrous structures using micro-computer tomography (µCT) is becoming more important as it provides an opportunity to characterise the mechanical properties and performance of materials. This study is the first attempt to provide computations of fibre crimp for various random fibrous networks (RFNs) based on µCT data. A parametric algorithm was developed to compute fibre crimp in fibres in a virtual domain. It was successfully tested for six different X-ray µCT models of nonwoven fabrics. Computations showed that nonwoven fabrics with crimped fibres exhibited higher crimp levels than those with non-crimped fibres, as expected. However, with the increased fabric density of the non-crimped nonwovens, fibres tended to be more crimped. Additionally, the projected fibre crimp was computed for all three major 2D planes, and the obtained results were statistically analysed. Initially, the algorithm was tested for a small-size, nonwoven model containing only four fibres. The fraction of nearly straight fibres was computed for both crimped and non-crimped fabrics. The mean value of the fibre crimp demonstrated that fibre segments between intersections were almost straight. However, it was observed that there were no perfectly straight fibres in the analysed RFNs. This study is applicable to approach employing a finite-element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to model/analyse RFNs.