A New Image Analysis Assisted Semi-Automatic Geometrical Measurement of Fibers in Thermoplastic Composites: A Case Study on Giant Reed Fibers

This work describes a systematic method for the analysis of attrition and residual morphology natural fibers during compounding process by twin-screw extrusion. There are several methods assessment fiber lengths morphology, although they usually based on use non-affordable apparatus or time-consuming methods. In this research, variation morphological features such as length, diameter aspect ratio were analyzed affordable optical scanning open-source software. article presents different steps to perform image acquisition, refining measurement in an automated way, achieving statistically representative results, with thousands per scanned sample. The technique giant reed polyethylene (PE) polylactide (PLA)-based composite materials has proved that there no significant differences output compound, regardless feed sizes, extruder scale, polymer used matrix. introduced production composites also did not significantly affect final size. greatest reduction size was obtained first kneading zone compounding. Pelletizing injection molding modify distribution.