MECHANICAL PROPERTY PREDICTIONS FOR SHORT FIBER/BRITTLE MATRIX COMPOSITES.

Short fiber composites were made with four different fiber orientation distributions. The molded panels were x-rayed, and positive prints were made from the radiographs. To measure the fiber orientation distribution a digitizer was used to digitize the end points of five hundred fibers from each set of radiographs distribution. A computer program then calculated the fiber orientation angles and produced a histogram of the orientation distribution which was used in the laminate analogy model for the mechanical property predictions. Histograms for the four different fiber orientation distributions are shown.