Determination of the process-induced microstructure of woven glass fabric reinforced polyamide 6.6/6 composite using terahertz pulsed imaging

Abstract

Terahertz pulsed imaging, combined with spatial and temporal signal and image processing, is performed to visualize the woven fabric in the various plies of glass-fiber-reinforced polymer laminates and to determine quantitative parameters characterizing the microstructure such as fiber-bundle orientation and the distance between yarns. The results are in quantitative agreement with the microstructure features provided by the manufacturer. In addition, the employed signal processing shows an excellent capability to reveal the weave pattern from noisy C-scans - where a visual-based analysis can be problematic - and to assess the process-induced microstructure.