Composites: Part A 67 (2014) 171–180

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Composites: Part A
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesa

Geometrical characterization and micro-structural modeling

of short steel fiber composites
Y. Abdin a,⇑, S.V. Lomov a, A. Jain a,b, G.H. van Lenthe c, I. Verpoest a
a
KU Leuven, Department Materials Engineering, Kasteelpark Arenberg 44, BE-3001 Leuven, Belgium
b
Siemens Industry Software nv, Interleuvenlaan 68, BE-3001 Leuven, Belgium
c
KU Leuven, Biomechanics Section, Celestijnenlaan 300c, BE-3001 Leuven, Belgium

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Short steel fiber reinforced polymer composites are a newly introduced class of materials which com-
Received 3 March 2014 bines outstanding properties of stiffness and ductility. The first step in modeling composite mechanical
Received in revised form 20 August 2014 properties is the generation of a representative volume element (RVE) which accurately describes the dis-
Accepted 25 August 2014
tinctive microstructure of the material. Injection molded short steel fiber composites exhibit a complex
Available online 4 September 2014
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 ran-
Keywords:
dom generation. The micro-structure of short steel fiber reinforced polycarbonate samples was deter-
A. Discontinuous reinforcement
C. Computational modeling
mined using X-ray micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) and the model input parameters were
D. Non-destructive testing identified using a specialized image processing methodology, based on the Mimics software package.
E. Injection molding Model generated RVEs were satisfactory compared qualitatively as well as quantitatively against the real
micro-CT reconstructed volumes.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Steel fiber reinforced polymers (SFRP), composed of annealed
stainless steel fibers embedded in a polymer matrix are a novel
class of materials with high strength and stiffness properties. The
inherent ductility of the annealed stainless steel fibers is an added
advantage in comparison with the brittle glass and carbon fibers
[1,2]. Steel fibers and steel fiber reinforced polymer composites
have been widely used in strengthening of concrete structures to
improve their durability and toughness. The addition of steel fibers
results in conversion of the failure behavior of concrete from brittle
to more ductile [3–7].
The diameter of steel fibers used in the reinforcement of con-
crete is at least 10 times larger than the micron-sized steel fibers
used in this study. It has been shown that in addition to their favor-
able mechanical properties, micron-sized stainless steel fibers have
intrinsic electrical conductivity, heat and corrosion resistance [1].
Commercial steel fibers used in this study are highly efficient in
electromagnetic (EMI) shielding applications: up to 60 dB EMI
shielding for 1.5% volume fraction (Vf) of fiber concentration (15%
weight fraction – Wf) [8].
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: Yasmine.Abdin@mtm.kuleuven.be (Y. Abdin).
In the last decades, short fiber reinforced composites have been
widely used especially in the automotive sector [9,10]. Among var-
ious processing methods considered for this category of materials,
the injection molding process has been increasingly used due to its
versatility in high volume production of complex shapes at low
costs [11]. The performance of short fiber composites is governed
by the complex geometry of the fiber distribution in the part
[12–18]. Unlike continuous UD or textile fiber reinforced compos-
ites, short fiber reinforced composites depict stochastic geometri-
cal features that evolve during processing [19]. Moreover, during
the injection molding process, high shear stresses exerted in the
melt by the screw rotation, in addition to fiber–fiber interactions,
lead to fiber breakage, resulting finally in a range of fiber lengths
(l), characterized by a length distribution function wL [20–22].
The complex flow of the melt, both in the screw area and in the
mold, results in variations of fiber orientations over the part,
locally characterized by a fiber orientation distribution function
w(h, U), where h and U are the fiber orientation angles in a spher-
ical co-ordinate system [10,20,23].
Owing to the high aspect ratio of annealed stainless steel fibers,
their low bending rigidity, low yield stress and high ductility, the
fibers are plastically deformed into very curved shapes. Hence, an
important characteristic of injection molded short steel fiber
composites is the high waviness of the fibers, which adds to the
complexity of the short fiber geometry.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2014.08.025
1359-835X/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
172 Y. Abdin et al. / Composites: Part A 67 (2014) 171–180
Precise knowledge of the microstructure, needed for accurate
predictions of the mechanical properties of a short fiber composite,
imparts a particular challenge for the three-dimensional wavy
steel fiber thermoplastic composites. In the past decades, different
techniques have been investigated for acquiring such information
for composites with short straight fibers. For measurement of the
fiber orientation distribution, microscopical observations on pol-
ished samples provide two-dimensional sections of the fibers; sim-
ple geometrical calculations allow then to generate the fiber
orientation [6,17,24,25]. Despite low equipment cost associated
with these methods, they are destructive and time consuming
and hence only small volumes can be analyzed. More importantly,
they often are not capable of accurate extraction of three-dimen-
sional information [19,24–27]. The fiber length distribution can
be determined with matrix burn-off techniques, which are again
destructive and are prone to significant errors due to degradation
of the fibers and altered geometries [28].
To overcome those problems, X-ray micro-computed tomogra-
phy (micro-CT) recently emerged as a powerful non-destructive
tool for three-dimensional fiber microstructure analysis [26]. A
number of studies thus far aimed at the characterization of the
geometrical parameters of short and long fiber reinforced compos-
ites using X-ray micro-CT techniques [19,28–31]. However, the pri-
mary focus of those investigations is straight fibers or straight fiber
segments. The quantification of the architecture of wavy fibers
reinforced composites remains yet a new topic of interest. The use
of X-ray micro-CT is especially suitable for the characterization of
the steel fiber reinforced polycarbonate samples considered in this
study, due to the large difference in X-ray absorption and hence high
contrast imaging between the metallic fibers and the polymer matrix.
The geometry of wavy fiber assemblies was studied before in the
field of non-woven textile materials. In a series of papers [32–35],
Pourdehyhimi et al. investigated different methods of evaluating
fiber orientation distribution functions (FODs) of non-woven
fabrics using image analysis, including direct fiber tracking, two-
dimensional Fourier analysis of images and a flow-field analysis to
derive fiber orientation by analyzing local texture information. By
applying these methods on simulated structures with well
described orientation and further, on real non-woven webs, they
concluded that direct tracking is the most accurate technique for
extracting fiber orientation distributions. Similar investigations
for characterizing FODs of wavy non-woven assemblies using image
processing include, among others, Gong and Newton [36], Rawal
et al. [37], Masse et al. [38], Xu and Yu [39] who explored Hough
transform image analysis algorithms. Nevertheless, all of the
mentioned investigations involve two-dimensional techniques
based on early concepts developed by Komori and Makishima [40]
who considered that FODs of curved fibers can be approximated
by those of hypothetical straight segments obtained by subdivision
of fibers and replacement of divided parts by straight segments.
The main disadvantage of this concept is that the resulting FODs
depend on fineness of subdivision of the fibers leading to inaccura-
cies [32,40]. Those can be especially more significant in the case of
three-dimensional wavy fibers. Thus, a technique allowing three-
dimensional analysis of complex wavy fibers and an accurate
method for the description of the FOD of three-dimensional wavy
fibers is needed.
Steel fiber reinforced polycarbonate samples with initial fiber
length (pre-injection) of 5 mm are considered for this investiga-
tion. In this work, we will be referring to that material as a short
random discontinuous fiber reinforced composite system follow-
ing the definition by Phelps and Tucker III [41] and Tatara [42],
among others, who classified long fiber thermoplastics (LFTs) as
materials reinforced with fibers longer than 10 mm.
To summarize, the aim of this paper is two-fold: (a) to develop a
geometrical model for generation of the random RVE of short wavy
steel fiber reinforced composites, (b) validation of the model
through X-ray tomography techniques. For the latter purpose, a
novel methodology is established for accurate three-dimensional
quantitative measurement and analysis of the micro-structural
parameters of short wavy steel fiber reinforced thermoplastic sam-
ples, which will be used as input for the mathematical model. The
generated RVEs are compared qualitatively against real tomogra-
phy reconstructed volumes. A quantitative comparison is done
using a straightness parameter (Ps) outputted from both the simu-
lated and real volumes.
The developed models for generation of random RVEs of short
wavy fibers provide a necessary starting point for further predic-
tive methods of modeling of the mechanical behavior of the com-
posite, which take into account its complex internal geometry. A
key characteristic of short steel fiber composites is its stochastic
nature which presents itself in fiber length, orientation, position
in addition to the stochasticity of waviness. For this reason, an
accurate statistical description of the ‘‘randomness’’ of generated
RVEs is crucial for reliable modeling of the overall composite
behavior.
2. Geometrical model
In the present paper the terms ‘‘geometry’’ or ‘‘architecture’’
refer to the local orientation and fiber length distributions, fiber
positions and fiber waviness. In the RVE generation algorithm
fibers are modeled as solid cylinders with a wavy central line.
The geometrical model is based on the following input parameters:
1. Fiber volume fraction Vf.
2. Fiber diameter given as one average value for all fibers (this
constraint can be easily waived in further model develop-
ment, for example, statistics of fiber diameters can be
introduced).
3. Fiber length distribution wL(l); the type of the distribution
function is not fixed, it can be even, normal, Weibull etc.
The type and values of the parameters of the selected fiber
length distribution are input, e.g. for a normal distribution
the mean and variance parameters are input.
4. Fiber orientation distribution, given as the 2nd order orienta-
tion tensor [18], which is used for reconstruction of the ori-
entation function w(h, U). This constraint also can be waived,
with input of an orientation tensor of the 4th order, or
approximated orientation function itself. Orientation distri-
butions here are considered as the end-to-end orientation
of the wavy fibers.
5. Fiber waviness profile. Fiber waviness is represented by a
combination of random harmonic functions:
  ps   ps 
rðsÞ ¼ A r 1 sin n1 þ w1 þ r 2 sin n2 þ w2 ; ð1Þ
L L
where: r(s) is the radial position in relation to a certain axis, s the
coordinate along the curved fiber axis, A is average amplitude of
fiber waves generated randomly as uniformly distributed on the
interval [0, Amax], Amax is maximum amplitude parameter given by
the user. r1 and r2 are two randomly generated orthogonal unit vec-
tors (|r1| = |r2| = 1) normal to the axis. n1,2 are waviness numbers
generated randomly (on log 2 scale) as uniformly distributed on
the interval [1, nmax], nmax is the maximum waviness number
parameter given by the user. L is the fiber length randomly gener-
ated following the FLD given by the user. w1,2 are phase shifts ran-
domly generated as uniformly distributed on the interval [0, 2p].
The geometrical model creates a realization of a random RVE via
a hierarchy of modeled objects:
 Y. Abdin et al. / Composites: Part A 67 (2014) 171–180
1. A fiber segment of a wavy fiber, characterized by fiber cross
section shape (elliptical, with two given axis), length and ori-
entation, and local fiber curvature.
2. Curved fiber, modeled as a sequence of fiber segments
(straight or curved) assembled together, and characterized
by fiber diameter, total length, end-to-end orientation of
the fiber and shape of the fiber cross section (elliptical), gen-
erated using the given waviness parameters. If the fiber is
straight, then it contains only one segment. The number of
segments per wave of curved fiber is a variable in the model
which can be modified by the user.
3. Random realization of an assembly of a given number of
curved fibers. Positions of the fibers are defined by random
deposition of fiber centers of gravity within the RVE bound-
aries. The RVE dimensions are calculated based on the given
fiber volume fraction and the number of fibers inside the
RVE. A given number of fibers is randomly generated by
the model according to the given distributions of length, ori-
entation and waviness of the fibers. Overlapping of fibers is
allowed.
4. Some of the fibers will protrude out of the RVE. The whole
RVE fiber assembly should be seen as an element, periodi-
cally translated in three directions to fill all the space with
the fibers.
The model is implemented in a C++ with visualization based on
OpenGL algorithms (pixels representation of generated fibers).
3. Materials and experiments
3.1. Steel fiber samples
Beki-Shield BU annealed stainless steel fibers (Bekaert,
Belgium) were used [8]. The continuous fibers are commercially
available in the form of rovings. Fiber diameters are in the range
8–11 lm. Sizing is applied to the fiber surface for better compati-
bility with polymeric matrices. For manufacturing of the short fiber
composite, the bundles were chopped in 5 mm initial length. The
fibers can be processed with a large range of binders and polymeric
matrices. Due to the high density of steel (q: 7.8 kg/dm2), the fiber
loading is varied in a range of volume fractions as low as 0.05–3%.
In this study, the fibers were mixed with a transparent polycarbon-
ate (PC) matrix, using an injection molding process with a central
injection point. Plates of dimensions W  L  H: 150  150 
2.5 mm were manufactured. All plates were produced under iden-
tical processing conditions of 260–340 °C barrel temperature and
325 bar injection pressure. In this study, the lowest available fiber
volume fraction, i.e. 0.05 Vf = 0.05% (equal to a weight fraction 0.39
Wf = 0.39%) was used for tomography analysis for more clear deter-
mination of the geometrical parameters of the fibers in a less
crowded matrix. Fig. 1 shows optical and SEM micrographs of
the investigated steel fiber reinforced composite. The figure clearly
illustrates the waviness of the steel fibers embedded in the matrix
following injection molding.
3.2. X-ray micro tomography
X-ray microtomography (also called micro-computed tomogra-
phy or micro-CT) was performed on a nano-CT system (GE Phoenix
Nanotom M, Belgium). The Nanotom device is equipped with a
high-power nanofocus X-ray tube with 4 power modes. A tungsten
target was chosen for the high X-ray absorbing steel fiber rein-
forced polycarbonate samples. A high power mode (mode 0) was
used to allow focal spot and voxel sizes in the desired micrometer
range.
173
A sample size of 6 mm edge length was used in this study. This
sample size was chosen in relation to the steel fiber length (larger
than the length of the fibers) in order to attain higher probabilities
of catching complete fibers within the sample. This prevents to a
large extent bias in characterization of the fiber length distribu-
tions induced by having a high probability of a given fiber in the
bulk material to be cut by the boundary of the sample volume
[28]. The sample was mounted on a sample holder and fixed on a
high-accuracy computer controlled rotation stage. Alignment of
the sample axis with respect to the rotation axis of the scanner
table was checked with a laser beam.
Fast scans (overall scanning time of 20 min) were carried out
due to the high X-ray absorbance of the steel fibers, hence reducing
the time needed for achieving high intensity/contrast at the detec-
tor. Exposure time was 500 ms. For each scan, 2400 X-ray 2D pro-
jection images were acquired on a flat panel CCD detector (field of
view 2304  2304 square pixels) obtained from incremental rota-
tion of the scanned samples over 360° with a rotation step of
0.15°. The resulting radiographic projections are grayscale 16-bit
tiff images with gray histogram values in the range of 0–65,536.
Acquisition parameters were fixed for all samples as follows: volt-
age = 65 kV, current = 210 A, voxel size = 3.5 lm, no filter was used
during scanning.
Reconstruction of the acquired 2D projections into 3D vol-
umes was performed using the GE Phoenix datos|x REC software
supplied by the Nanotom manufacturer. A calibration of the
acquired images was performed for compensation of sample
drift-effects using the software’s scan|optimiser module. Auto-
matic geometry calibration was done using the agc|module. Beam
hardening correction and automatic ring artefact reduction were
carried out using the bhc+|module and rar|module respectively.
Owing to the high power applied to the source, and hence the
high intensities on the detector, ring artefacts were nearly
negligible. Reconstructed XY datasets (slices) were exported
from the software in 16-bit tiff format for further analysis and
visualization.
4. Analysis
The 3D tomographic dataset reconstruction allows visualization
and acquisition of qualitative information of the scanned samples.
In order to get quantitative data on the fibrous microstructures, i.e.
determination of the fiber length and fiber orientation distribution,
additional image analysis operations outlined below were per-
formed. Difficulties aroused in attempting to get such information
for the wavy fibers using common imaging software packages due
to the complexity of the microstructure, hence the need for spe-
cialized tools for 3D characterization.
4.1. Image segmentation
Tomographic reconstructed datasets, which are generally gray-
scale images are often segmented to extract quantitative informa-
tion, especially in case of presence of different phases [43].
Thresholding is the simplest and most efficient segmentation tech-
nique, converting grayscale images into binarized (black and
white) images by turning all pixels above a threshold to a fore-
ground value and all the remaining pixels to a background
value [43–45]. In this work, thresholding was performed using
CT-Analyser software (CTAn v.1.13, Brucker microCT). Automatic
global thresholding was chosen based on the Otsu method [46].
Global thresholding refers to a process in which a global threshold
value is used for all pixels of an image as opposed to complex
adaptive thresholding methods in which threshold values change
dynamically over the image.
174 Y. Abdin et al. / Composites: Part A 67 (2014) 171–180

1 mm

(a) (b)
Fig. 1. Micrographs of short steel fiber reinforced polycarbonate sample showing the fibers waviness (a) optical micrograph of the composite plate (stainless steel 0.05Vf%)
and (b) scanning electron micrograph of the steel fibers after a matrix burn-out procedure (stainless steel 2Vf%), the figure shows high entanglements of the fibers. (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

To summarize, the 3D datasets were binarized by histogram

global thresholds, applied individually on each image in the data-
set (individual automatic global thresholds), above which all vox-
els were considered to belong to the fibrous phase, and below
which all voxels were considered matrix phase and noise [47].
Thus, new binarized datasets are obtained where fibers are sep-
arated and appear as white pixels. This allows the compaction of
data in reconstructed slices as further analysis is done only on
the fibers. Fig. 2a and b shows 2D reconstructed slices and their
corresponding binarized slice. Global thresholding values derived
from image gray level histogram are shown in Fig. 2c.
The large attenuation contrast between the metal fibers and
polymer resin allowed straightforward thresholding of the images.
Validation of thresholding values was carried out by 3D morphom-
etry analysis which is a process from which the fiber volume frac-
tion (calculated from ratio of white voxels to ratio of all voxels)
were calculated and found to be 0.051% which was close to the
specified value of 0.05%. This value was not found to be sensitive
to small variations of thresholds.

4.2. Three-dimensional image analysis tool

As previously mentioned, extraction of the geometrical param-

eters of the wavy fiber microstructure is a complex undertaking
which is difficult to realize using common micro-CT analysis soft-
ware. In the present work, a 3D image processing software (Mimics
v.15.01, Materialise NV, Belgium) was used to accomplish this aim.
Mimics is a software primarily developed for medical image pro-
cessing [48].
Due to computer limitations and large amount of data, con-
struction of the 3D model from original gray scale reconstructed
images was not feasible. Therefore, compaction of data through
segmented images as described in Section 4.1 was necessary, and
allowed considerably fast building of 3D models on Mimics
(around 15 min/model). As a first step, all fiber pixels were com-
prised in a so-called mask (virtual object containing the pixels). Fig. 2. Thresholding of steel fiber reinforced polycarbonate sample (a) 2D gray-level
A 3D model of the fibers mask was created. 2D reconstructed images, (b) corresponding binary image and (c) individual
automatic global thresholds obtained from gray scale attenuation histogram. The
4.2.1. Fiber length distribution (FLD) attenuation histogram consists of two overlapping bivariate distributions. The peak
corresponding to lower attenuation index is associated with matrix material. Due to
Using the Mimics software package, a procedure was developed
the low volume fraction (low probability) the peak of steel fibers is not visible. (For
for the determination of the ‘‘real’’ length distribution of the wavy interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred
steel fibers. Fig. 4a shows the reconstructed steel fibers in a ‘‘green’’ to the web version of this article.)
mask. In order to obtain the fiber length distribution as well as
other required geometrical parameters, it was necessary to sepa- connected, were performed. Hence, individual fibers were sepa-
rate individual fibers from their neighbors to perform analysis on rated, creating a new separate mask for each of the fibers. An
single fibers. Region-growing operations, which are procedures example of single fiber separation is shown in Fig. 4b. Fig. 4c
for elimination of noise and separations of structures that are not illustrates 3D objects constructed from individual fiber masks.
 Y. Abdin et al. / Composites: Part A 67 (2014) 171–180 175

The next step is the determination of the wavy fiber length. For this
purpose, centerlines were fitted to the fiber objects using the
MedCad module in the Mimics software. Centerline fitting is a skel-
etonization ‘‘thinning’’ operation which reduces 3D objects to their
medial axes. The result is a set of automatically generated control
points which traces the wavy fiber profile. The wavy length of the
individual fibers (Lf) is directly given as the ‘‘length of centerline’’
which is the sum of the distances between control points.
A similar analysis was performed in [31], where the authors
used the Mimics software for the determination of the length dis-
tribution of short straight fibers. In the case of straight fibers, sep-
aration of single fibers was not needed, and automatic centerline
fitting for the whole model was possible. However, with the wav-
iness and entanglements of the steel in this study, fibers the sepa-
ration was necessary for accurate analysis.
In the case of the studied steel fibers, resolution errors in mea-
surement of the fiber length through micro-CT information are
negligible due to the large scale difference between the length
scale (in the order of mm) and the scan resolution (in the order
of microns) [44,49]. Analysis was performed on a total of 150
fibers. Statistical analysis of the FLD was performed on Statistica
v.6 software.

4.2.2. Fiber orientation distribution (FOD)

Fig. 3. Thresholded 3D model of a micro-CT scan of SSFRP built in Mimics software
package. The picture shows a green mask of rendered steel fibers and the outline of
the matrix mask in purple. (For interpretation of the references to color in this
figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Orientation distributions of short random fiber reinforced com-
posites require a three-dimensional description [20]. To determine
the orientation of individual fibers in the matrix, a spherical

L0

Lf

(a) (b)

(c)
Fig. 4. Procedure for characterization of fiber length and orientation distribution of SSFRP. (a) 3D reconstructed model in Mimics software, (b) separation of single fibers and
(c) fitting of centerline, automatic measurement of fiber length and post-processing for measurement of fiber orientation. (For interpretation of the references to color in this
figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
176 Y. Abdin et al. / Composites: Part A 67 (2014) 171–180

coordinate system is typically used. The orientation of a fiber can could be validated qualitatively through comparison of generated
be described in polar coordinates by two angles, namely: in-plane RVE’s with micro-CT reconstructed samples as well as quantita-
orientation angle U and out-of-plane orientation angle h [6,18,50]. tively using Ps.
The in-plane orientation angle U is assumed to follow symmetry To summarize, the process of analyzing micro-CT information
conditions i.e. the probability of the U is equal to the probability involved: thresholding of reconstructed datasets to remove matrix
of U + 180°. and noise voxels, construction of a 3D model using the Mimics
While the definition of orientation and distribution is well software, separation of single fibers, idealization of the fibers into
established and generally accepted for short fiber composites in centerlines, extraction of (L, L0, h, U) values of each fiber, analysis
which the constituent fibers are straight, there is no such clear def- of FLD, FOD, Ps and aij information.
inition in situations of fibers with arbitrary curvatures or waviness.
Komori and Makishima [40] considered the orientation distribu-
tion of curved fibers as the distribution of straight segments result- 5. Results and discussion
ing from a subdivision of the wavy fibers in a number of segments.
However, such description is computationally complex, and may 5.1. Fiber length distribution
lead to inaccuracies related to the dependency on segment lengths.
In the present work the orientation of an individual wavy fiber is Fig. 5a shows the resulting length distribution data of the steel
considered as the end-to-end direction of the fiber centerline as fibers, measured from the micro-CT reconstructed model. While
defined in [6], with the variation of orientation along the fiber han- the original fiber length was 5 mm as described above, the figure
dled by the random waviness model (1). A graphical representation
of the orientation of the wavy steel fiber, as considered in this
work, is shown in Fig. 4c.
Orientation tensors are compact representations of the fiber ori-
entations state, typically used in cases where a rigorous descrip-
tion through fiber orientation distribution is computationally
expensive [9,18,51]. The second order orientation tensor is defined
in Eq. (2).
Z
aij ¼ pi pj wðpÞ dp ð2Þ

The components of p are related to the angles h and U as

described in Eq. (3)
p1 ¼ cos h; p2 ¼ sin h cos U; p3 ¼ sin h sin U ð3Þ
In this study the second order orientation tensor is calculated
from micro-CT data and used as input in the geometrical model.
Individual fiber centerlines are exported from the Mimics software.
A Matlab algorithm was created for analyzing the centerlines and
calculating the h and U angles (end-to-end orientation angles of
the wavy fibers) and the direction vector p of each fiber as shown
in Fig. 4c. The second order tensor aij is then calculated according
to Eq. (2).

4.2.3. Fiber waviness

An analysis was performed to quantify the degree of waviness
of the steel fibers. In a recent study, Rezakhaniha et al. [52] inves-
tigated the waviness of collagen fibers and introduced a so-called
straightness parameter (Ps) which is defined as:
L0
Ps ¼ ð4Þ
Lf
L0 being the distance of visible end-points of the wavy fiber
(Fig. 4b). Consequently, Ps is bounded in the range between 0 and
1, where Ps = 1 indicates a totally straight fiber. The straightness
parameter is analogous to the textile fibers ‘‘crimp parameter’’
which is often expressed as the percentage of unstretched length
of the crimped yarn [53,54].
In the present work, the straightness parameter was analyzed
for the wavy steel fibers. Values of L0 were calculated for each fiber
using the Matlab algorithm performed on exported centerlines
from the Mimics software.
The straightness parameter could be practically useful for a
quantitative assessment of the mathematical model in comparison Fig. 5. Length distribution of steel fiber reinforced polycarbonate composite (a)
with the experimental micro-CT data. For that purpose, the same probability density plots of achieved lengths of steel fibers fitted with different
statistical distribution functions i.e.: Normal, Lognormal and Weibull distributions
parameter was calculated from RVEs generated from the mathe- and (b) Weibull probability plot of the steel fiber length data. (For interpretation of
matical model, using the same Matlab algorithm applied on data the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version
points of fibers obtained from the model. Consequently, the model of this article.)
 Y. Abdin et al. / Composites: Part A 67 (2014) 171–180
illustrates that during injection molding the fibers were subjected
to breakage resulting in a length distribution with the maximum at
about half of the pre-processing length. Although these data indi-
cate significant fiber breakage during processing, in the case of
the ductile steel fibers the fiber fragmentation is much less severe
than that reported for brittle glass fiber [19]. The lack of fragmen-
tation is ‘‘compensated’’ by extensive fiber bending leading to their
waviness.
A number of typical statistical distributions were fitted to
describe the experimentally obtained fiber length histogram as
shown in Fig. 5. Asymmetric functions such as lognormal or Wei-
bull functions with a tail at the longer fiber lengths were used to
describe the length distribution of brittle straight glass fibers in
[19,20]. Nevertheless, the fitted probability density functions plot-
ted in Fig. 5a indicates that the lognormal distribution does not
accurately fit the steel fiber lengths data. Normal and Weibull dis-
tributions provide better descriptions. However, normal distribu-
tion has a left ‘‘tail’’ in negative values of the lengths, which is
not physical. Therefore, the Weibull distribution, with shape
parameter, k = 2.24 and scale parameter k ¼ 2053, was used as
input to the mathematical model (Fig. 5b).
5.2. Fiber orientation distribution
Fig. 6a and b illustrates the resulting h and U distributions
between 0o and 180o. The histogram of the U angle distribution,
shown in Fig. 6a, indicates that the fibers are almost homoge-
neously distributed, with no preferred orientation in the XY plane.
In contrast, the distribution of the h angle shows a peak (preferred
orientation) at 90°, suggesting that the fibers are oriented quite
parallel to the plane of the plate.
For input of the mathematical model, the orientation tensor was
determined as explained in Section 4.2.2. The resulting second
order orientation tensor aij of the end-to-end fiber orientations
was as follows:
2 3
0:444 0:061 0:079
6 7
aij ¼ 4 0:061 0:465 0:006 5
0:079 0:006 0:089
The diagonal components of the orientation tensor provide an
idea about the preferential orientation. The sum of all diagonal
components is equal to unity. In the case of perfect random 2D ori-
entation, the diagonal components of the orientation tensor should
be (0.5, 0.5, 0). In agreement with the analysis of the angle distri-
butions, the resulting orientation tensor can be approximated as
a quasi-planar orientation tensor (in XY plane). This is because of
Fig. 6. FOD of the short steel fibers (a) distribution of U angle and (b) distribution of h angle.
177
the nature of the samples having very small thickness compared
to planar directions (Z being the thickness direction, Fig. 3). Komori
and Makishima [40] reported that in sheet-like assemblies, all
fibers may be conceived to be oriented parallel to the plane of
the sheet.
It should be noted that the observed planar orientations of the
steel fibers explained here refers to the end-to-end orientation as
discussed earlier. This end directional orientation was considered
for efficient numerical calculations. However, the straight seg-
ments explained in Section 2, will exhibit more complex three-
dimensional orientations which can be seen in Fig. 2a and b where
2D sections perpendicular to the plane of the plate, reconstructed
from micro-CT data, comprised only dots (point projections) of
the fibers indicating 3D orientations of fiber segments resulting
from its waviness.
5.3. RVE of steel fibers
Table 1 summarizes the main geometrical input parameters
used for the generation of RVEs of the short wavy steel fiber rein-
forced polycarbonate composite, considered in this study, using
the micro-structural model. All input parameters are calculated
from micro-CT information (Vf, d are assumed nominal).
Fig. 7 shows a realization of the wavy steel fiber composite RVE
generated using the micro-structural algorithm explained in Sec-
tion 2. The figure shows a qualitative agreement of the mathemat-
ical model to the real steel fiber reinforced architecture observed
through tomography analysis (Figs. 3 and 4a). Using a random
positioning algorithm, the model was able to mimic the clustering
of the steel fibers. The figure illustrates very comparable regions of
entanglements of the simulated fibers (indicated by black arrows
in Fig. 7) and other regions of low local volume fractions of fibers
(indicated by red arrows in Fig. 7), as was observed in the real
micro-structure shown in Figs. 3 and 4.
Due to the large number of fibers generated in the RVE instance
shown in Fig. 7, exact modeled waviness profiles of each fiber is not
clearly visible. Fig. 8 shows a close-up micro-CT image (higher
magnification, smaller sample, voxel size = 2 lm) of the steel fiber
reinforced polycarbonate samples and a comparison of the real
waviness of the steel fibers with the one simulated by the geomet-
rical model. The generated RVE is the same as that illustrated in
Fig. 7 with input parameters summarized in Table 1. Fig. 8 is cre-
ated by manually selecting similar real and simulated fibers. The
purpose is to validate the waviness patterns obtained by the
model, which is not clear from the global picture in Fig. 7. It can
be seen that the model is able to generate waviness profiles that
178 Y. Abdin et al. / Composites: Part A 67 (2014) 171–180

Table 1
Main geometrical input parameters used for the mathematical model.

Volume fraction, Vf% 0.05

Fiber diameter, d (mm)
Fiber length distribution, wL
Fiber orientation
Fiber waviness
0.008
Weibull distribution
k = 2.24
k ¼ 2053
Orientation tensor
2 3
0:444 0:061 0:079
aij ¼ 4 0:061 0:465 0:006 5
0:079 0:006 0:089
Maximum wave amplitude, Amax = 0.05 mm
Waviness number, nmax = 4

are very comparable to real waviness of the steel fibers embedded

in the matrix.

5.4. Straightness parameter

Fig. 9 plots the probability density histograms of the straight-

ness parameter Ps calculated from experimental observations and
geometrical model. In addition, the figure includes normal fits of
the density functions. The Ps parameter allows quantification of
the waviness of the fibers. The experimental histogram demon-
strates that the waviness of the steel fibers follow a normal distri-
bution with most fibers having Ps values in the range between 0.4
and 0.7 (l = 0.58, r = 0. 21). The results imply the high degree of
waviness of the injection molded steel fibers. Rezakhaniha et al.
[52] explained that the straightness parameter is the inverse of
the straightening stretch which refers to the amount of stretch to
be applied along the fiber in order to get it straightened. Conse-
quently, the Ps distribution may be particularly interesting for con-
sideration in the development of micro-structural models of short
steel fiber composites, especially with the high degree of waviness
exhibited by the steel fibers under consideration. The significance
of the parameter is expected to be higher with increasing aspect
ratios of the fibers.
In addition to giving quantified information about the waviness
of the steel fibers, the straightness parameter Ps provided means
for validation of the micro-structural model against the micro-CT
information. Fig. 9 shows a comparison of the histogram and
Fig. 9. Probability density of the straightness parameter Ps: comparison between
experimentally achieved (micro-CT) information and mathematical model. Histo-
grams are the probability distributions achieved from experiments and model,
fitting lines are normal probability fits of achieved histogram showing a clear
agreement between Ps calculated from model and experiments. (For interpretation
of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)
normal fits of the Ps distributions calculated from the simulated
RVE against that calculated from experimental micro-CT data.
The figure shows a very good agreement of both histograms and
normal distribution fits. The close agreement reveals that the
mathematical model provided successful simulation and represen-
tation of the waviness of the steel fiber composites, in addition to
the satisfactory simulation of the nature of the local entanglements
and local variations of the fiber volume fractions of the steel fibers
as explained above in Section 5.3. The successful simulation of the
short steel fiber composite architectures imparts the basis for accu-
rate predictions of the behavior of the material through further
structural and mechanical models.

Fig. 7. Representative volume element of short wavy steel fiber composite generated from micro-structural model with input parameters achieved from micro-CT
information. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
 Y. Abdin et al. / Composites: Part A 67 (2014) 171–180
Fig. 8. Micro-CT image of SSFRP and a comparison between real and modeled waviness profiles using the developed micro-structural model. (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
6. Conclusions
The model concept proposed in this work, provides a means for
generation of short random fiber reinforced micro-structures. The
novelty of the model relies in the capability of modeling complex
wavy reinforcements based on mathematical formulations. The
model gives foundation for further accurate predictions of
mechanical properties of the wavy fiber composites taking into
account random and stochastic characteristics of the local micro-
structure. In the present work, the model was applied for a short
wavy steel fiber reinforced composite. The developed model can
be applied to other composite systems e.g. natural fiber compos-
ites, non-woven fiber reinforced composites where waviness typi-
cally exists but is seldom considered in generation algorithms. The
mathematical formulation of harmonic functions of fiber waviness
can be easily adapted to envelop other types of random crimped
short/long fiber reinforcements.
Another aspect of this work is the development of a methodol-
ogy for the characterization of the geometrical parameters of short
steel fibers composites using micro-CT testing. The developed
methodology presents solid means for efficient complex 3D analy-
sis of random wavy structures.
In the next stage of the research, micro-mechanical and damage
modeling, based on the well-known mean-field homogenization
techniques, will be performed on RVEs of short steel fiber compos-
ites generated by the algorithms described in this paper. The
obtained predictions will be validated against experimental results
of real samples. This will promote further validation of the geomet-
rical model presented in this work.
Acknowledgements
The work leading to this publication has received funding from
the SIM-IWT funded ICON IBO-2 Project ‘‘Micro-mechanical & Fati-
gue Modeling of Short Steel Fiber Reinforced Composites’’. The
authors thank Leen Lenaerts (KU Leuven) for valuable assistance
in using Mimics software. The authors also thank Peter Persoone,
Rik DeWitte (Bekaert) for their help and supply of samples used
179
in the study, Stefan Sträßer, Christophe Liefooghe, and Michael
Hack (LMS intl, a Siemens business) and prof. Wim Van Paepegem
(UGhent) for fruitful discussions. Development of the micro-CT lab
in KU Leuven, supervised by Prof. M. Wevers, is supported by
the Hercules program of the Flemish Government. The help of G.
Pyka with micro-CT is gratefully acknowledged. Prof. I. Verpoest
holds the Toray chair in Composites at KU Leuven.
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