6533b830fe1ef96bd1296827

RESEARCH PRODUCT

The number of contacts in random fibre networks

subject

description

There is a wide range of materials that can be considered as nonwoven random networks of fibres. Such materials include glass-fibre mats, filters, various paper products and structural components of cells and tissues. The mechanical properties of these kinds of networks have been studied extensively for many decades. As many of such networks form more or less two-dimensional structures, they can, to a good approximation, be considered to consist of randomly distributed fibres or filaments connected at their crossings points. Recent development of the resolution of X-ray computed tomography have enabled imaging of the three dimensional structure of such materials with a resolution sufficient to produce accurate information of the fibre network. As the mean segment length, for given elastic properties of the fibers and contacts in the network, essentially affects the elastic response of the network, it is a property of great practical importance, but it has been very difficult to determine. We therefore introduce a method to determine in practice the mean segment length along with the density of fiber-fiber contacts.