Improved 3D image segmentation for X-ray tomographic data of biaxial warp-knitted composites

Identifying different features and phases within the biaxial warp-knitted composites enables accurate characterization of the internal changes of the composites under complex loading conditions and different processing parameters. However, obtaining 3D reconstructions that can be accurately segmented and quantitatively analyzed is still a challenge, primarily due to the low attenuation of materials, especially the low contrast between the weft yarn and warp yarns. Here, we use deep learning approaches to identify the boundary of the section of the tow on the 2D image, extract individual warp or weft tows automatically, and this is followed by computational modeling of composite materials. The results show that the performance of ResUNet++ model is better than that of other models for the biaxial warp-knitted composite specimen segmentation tasks. The special improved dataset augmentation algorithm is also a positive effective way to enhance network performance.