Method for measuring deformability properties of a fibre
A method for measuring a property of a fiber, such as flexibility, collapsibility and moment of inertia. A fiber is wetted and deformed in its wet state, and an optical section image of the deformed fiber is taken. A measurement is made on the image and the desired property is calculated using the measurement.
1. A method for measuring a property of a fibre comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a fibre;
(b) wetting the fibre;
(c) deforming the fibre in its wet state around an object by applying a pressing load at a controlled pressure;
(d) acquiring an optical section image by a CLSM of the deformed fibre;
(e) making a measurement on the image; and
(f) calculating the property using the measurement
wherein the optical section image is a transverse image and the property is flexibility.
2. The method according to claim 1 further including the step of defining a neutral bending plane and a plane of the substrate on which the fibre is mounted.
3. The method according to claim 2 wherein the measurement is made with reference to the neutral bending plane and the plane of the substrate.
4. The method according to claim 3 wherein the measurement consists of measuring a freespan length and a deflection height.
5. The method according to claim 4 further including the step of quantifying the pressing load used in deforming the fibre and wherein the flexibility of the fibre is calculated according to the equation:
flexibility=72 d/qL 4
where d is the deflection height, L is the freespan length and q is the pressing load.
6. A method for measuring a property of a fibre comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a fibre;
(b) wetting the fibre;
(c) deforming the fibre in its wet state around an object by applying a pressing load at a controlled pressure;
(d) acquiring an optical section image by a CLSM of the deformed fibre;
(e) making a measurement on the image; and
(f) calculating the property using the measurement
and further including the step of defining a neutral bending plane,
wherein the optical section image is a cross-section and the property is fibre collapsibility .
7. The method according to claim 6 wherein the measurement is made with reference to the neutral bending plane.
8. The method according to claim 7 wherein the measurement consists of measuring fibre thickness and fibre width.
9. The method according to claim 8 wherein the fibre collapsibility is measured according to the following equation:
AR
=
D
min
D
max
where D min is the shortest Feret diameter as measured on the image and D max is the longest Feret diameter as measured on the image.
10. A method for measuring a property of a fibre comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a fibre;
(b) wetting the fibre;
(c) deforming the fibre in its wet state around an object by applying a pressing load at a controlled pressure;
(d) acquiring an optical section image by a CLSM of the deformed fibre;
(e) making a measurement on the image; and
(f) calculating the property using the measurement
wherein the optical section image is a cross-section and the property is the fibres moment of inertia and,
wherein the image is a binarized image and further including the step of defining a neutral bending plane on the image.