Acquisition of multi voxel size X-ray computed tomography and optical microscopy image datasets of a thermoplastic CFRP tape

Four specimens were prepared from one continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Polymer (CFRP) tape and nondestructively tested using 2D X-ray micrographs and 3D X-ray Computed Tomography (CT). They were each polished on one front side and imaged by optical microscopy using a Keyence VK-X1000 confocal scanning microscope. These two-dimensional micrographs provided high-resolution reference data of the polished tape surfaces. CT was performed on the same specimens with a Zeiss Xradia 520 Versa at voxel sizes of 0.8, 2.0, and 3.5 µm each. The field of view was adjusted to include the polished front side, and the rotation axis was kept constant in between scans of one specimen. This configuration enabled the CT datasets to be registered into a common coordinate system. The registered stacks were subsequently cropped to the tape volume to optimize memory usage. The 3D CT datasets were segmented using structure tensor analysis and Trainable Weka Segmentation to extract fiber, matrix and pore regions in the CFRP tapes’ microstructure. The 2D microscopy images were used as complementary benchmarks to evaluate the required spatial resolution. The overall aim was to determine whether reliable microstructural characterization demands full fiber-level resolution, or whether coarser CT scans provide sufficient information.