Application of High-Contrast X-Ray Computerized Tomography to Carbon Fider/Polymer Composites
Yukihiro NISHIKAWA, Naohide OHTA, Yuichiro KOMASU and Masaoki TAKAHASHI
Abstract:Three-dimensional real-space images of the carbon fiber (CF) / polymer composites were obtained by a high-contrast X-ray computerized tomography (CT). Since both CF and polymers do not include heavy atoms, CF has not been supposed to be suitable to X-ray CT observation. In this study, we used the X-ray CT apparatus which is designed to enhance the contrast of the materials consisting only of light-weight atoms. Besides the usage of the appropriate apparatus, the experimental conditions were found to be important: cutting the sample into a thin rod, and obtaining sufficient number of projections. In our case, we used 1 mm x 1 mm x 4 mm sample, and 720 projections with 0.25 degree intervals in order to obtain the 3 ƒÊm voxel resolution in the reconstructed three-dimensional images. Eventually, each CF in polystyrene was clearly visualized in three dimensions. Key Words:X-ray computerized tomography, Carbon fiber, Polymer composites, Three-dimensional image, Polymer blends, Polystyrene, Poly(Methyl methacrylate)