Application of Microwave Polarimetry to the Characterization of Fiber Misalignment in Composites

In this paper synthetic aperture radar (SAR) polarimetry techniques are applied to detect and characterize fiber misalignment in both carbon fiber sheets and glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites. The principle behind SAR polarimetry technique to characterize fiber orientation is described, making use of the fact that carbon and glass fibers are polarizing when irradiated with a microwave signal. The difficulties in using 2D polarimetry techniques to make the 3D orientation measurements, required to characterize out-of-plane fiber misalignment, are discussed as well. Subsequently, the feasibility of a recently-developed 3D SAR polarimetry method for this purpose is demonstrated. Several carbon fiber sheet and glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) samples were manufactured with both in- and out-of-plane fiber misalignment. Polarimetric SAR images of the samples were then produced to show the spatially-varying relative orientation (both in-plane and out-of-plane) of the fibers for each sample. These images can be used to both detect and characterize any fiber misalignment, successfully demonstrating the potential for SAR polarimetry as a tool for the inspection of carbon and glass fiber reinforced composites.