Pure and Fibre-Hybrid Carbon Fibre and Polypropylene Layer-to-Layer 3D Woven Composite Micrographs

Description

Micrographs (employing fluorescent dye) of pure carbon fibre and fibre-hybrid carbon fibre and polypropylene layer-to-layer angle interlock 3D woven composites post-Charpy impact test. The blue colour indicates resin. The fluorescent green colour, produced by resin infusion after the impact tests, highlights the cracks (and the surroundings of the samples).

Steps to reproduce

Selected 3D woven composite samples used in Charpy impact tests were sectioned and infused with fluorescent resin for the microscopic investigation of cracks inside the materials, which were not visible in the CT scans. We used EpoFix resin with fluorescent Epo dye. The prepared samples were imaged on a Nikon F1 upright microscope configured for fluorescence imaging. The fluorophore in the sample was excited at 450nm (+/-10nm) and the fluorescence collected from 500-550nm. Images were recorded using a x10, 0.25NA Plan Fluor objective. Images were captured using an IPhone attached to the microscope eye pieces as this provided a large field of view than using the conventional camera port. To ensure accurate scaling of the images a 40 lines per millimetre bar grating (40RD50 Comar Optics Ltd) was imaged and the effective pixel size on the camera determined using Image J. All image processing was undertaken off-line from the microscope.

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