Application of the Micro-Computed Tomography for Analyses of the Mechanical Behavior of Brittle Porous Materials

Micro Computed Tomography (μCT) can be applied for three-dimensional characterization of structural features like pores in a non-destructive way. The resolution of the volumetric data depends upon the size of the specimen, its x-ray absorption coefficient and the tomography system used. With a commercial desktop μCT system we achieved a Voxel size of 14.7 μm on a carbon/carbon composite specimen, which was further loaded until fracture in a four point cyclic bending test. Based on this investigation we present a methodology for brittle materials to determine the initial pore distribution (pores down to a size of about 50 μm), the three dimensional stress-state and the fracture surface corresponding to the non-deformed microstructure.