Some comments on the theory of short fibre reinforced materials; pp. 179–183

Abstract

The orientation of fibres in short fibre reinforced materials is essential for the properties of the composite. It is state of the art to use an orientation number to estimate how many fibres are aligned in the stress direction. This, however, is a very crude approach, as the orientation number is defined by use of the average of the projected length of the fibres. Therefore, the orientation number is not a material property – it depends also on the projection direction. Additionally, a simple number cannot be used to describe anisotropic properties. We introduce a tensorial approach, which is objective and consists of real material properties.