Determination and Visualization of Porosity
Praktikum/BA/DA
Sample slice image of a carbon fiber reinforced polymers specimen. Several classifications of segmented pores are highlighted.
Description
In recent years the use of lightweight components, made of carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRP), increased due to the increased stiffness and strength-to-weight ratio of composites. Especially in aeronautics and automotive industry is a strong demand for these lightweight materials. Therefore a low porosity in the component is essential.
Porosity is defined as the ratio between the volume of pores and the total volume of the component and typically is the result of pressure losses in the autoclave during the manufacturing process. It has an impact on the mechanical properties of a specimen such as compressive and interlaminar shear strength as well as the elasticity modulus of the material. A significant task in quality control is to quantify and study the porosity of samples of such materials.
In our projects we apply X-Ray Computed Tomography (XCT) to quantify and visualize porosity in real world CFRP specimens to enhance the evaluation workflow for non-destructive testing (NDT) practitioners.
Open topics
- Topic 1) Quantification and visual analysis of porosity: Design and implementation of specific algorithms for the exact quantification of porosity in carbon fiber reinforced polymers to address the challenging problems like the partial volume effect and the missing ground truth. This also includes the classification of pores (cracks, critical and uncritical pores).
- Topic 2) Determination and visualization of carbon fibers: CFRP components consist of carbon fibers and epoxy resin. One big challenge is the segmentation of the fibers which are enclosed as fiber bundles in a twill-weave pattern. With this new information it is possible to visualize porosity in different layers of the material.
- Topic 3) Simulation and visualization: As pores are the result of the manufacturing process, it is important to understand the process of pore synthesis and distribution. With the design and implementation of specific algorithms for the simulation and visualization of pore synthesis, NDT practitioners may be able to draw conclusions about the manufacturing process.
What we offer...
- Interesting topics, applied research on real world problems
- Cooperation with our company and research partners
- Supervision and mentoring together with the CG Institute
What we expect...
- Good skills in C++ and software engineering
- Interested in scientific visualization
- Some experience in parallel programming, CUDA or OpenCL is advantageous
Further information
If you are interested, just contact me and we will find an interesting topic for you:
Andreas Reh
University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria - Research & Development Ltd.
Stelzhamerstraße 23
4600 Wels/Austria
Tel : ++43-50804-44406
Fax : ++43-50804-944406
http://www.3dct.at
http://www.fh-ooe.at
