NDT&E International 137 (2023) 102836

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NDT and E International

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ndteint

Automated image-based geometric modelling of thick laminates with

three-dimensional ply wrinkles
Xiao Chen, Asier Barbeito Albizu, Xing-Yuan Miao ∗
Department of Wind and Energy Systems, Technical University of Denmark, Risø Campus, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Ply wrinkles are commonly induced during thermal–mechanical manufacturing process of laminated composite
Composite structures or components. Fibre misalignment due to ply wrinkles compromises the structural integrity of
Wrinkle a composite structure. The damage criticality can be assessed numerically based on non-destructive testing
Geometric reconstruction
results. Geometric modelling is usually required and it is time-consuming if complex wrinkles have to be
Gaussian function
incorporated into the finite element model. This study presents an automated image-based three-dimensional
Finite element modelling
geometric reconstruction method for thick laminates with complex ply wrinkles. The geometry of a thick
laminate is reconstructed based on the limited inspection images from the sides of laminates. The two-
dimensional geometric reconstruction of the detected wrinkled plies is done using a multiple Gaussian functions
model or linear interpolation, while the intermediate plies are defined by distance-based interpolation. Based
on the reconstructed two-dimensional geometries, the three-dimensional ply wrinkles are modelled via an
inverse distance weighting interpolation method. To verify the proposed method, a thick glass fibre laminate
with artificially induced wrinkles is manufactured and the cross-sectional geometries of the reconstructed
model are compared well with and the realistic inspection data. Progressive failure analysis of a two-
dimensional and a three-dimensional reconstructed model are compared in terms of damage progression and
load versus nominal strain response to highlight the relevance of modelling three-dimensional wrinkles to
obtain more accurate and efficient damage criticality assessments.

1. Introduction or three- (3D) dimensional numerical models [1,5,11–17]. Previous

Laminated composite materials are widely used in wind energy,
aerospace, sports equipment, and many other sectors. During their
thermal–mechanical manufacturing process, wrinkle defects are com-
monly induced to the laminated composite structures or components.
Severe wrinkles compromise the structural integrity of the composite
components due to the fibre misalignment [1,2]. Fibre misalignment,
i.e. fibres with orientation angles larger than zero relative to the
loading direction, can reduce mechanical properties such as stiffness,
strength and fatigue [3]. This mechanical properties decrement was
the general finding of several experimental studies where wrinkled
composite laminates were tested under tensile, compressive or cyclic
loads [4–7]. The detection and the modelling of these damages in
large composite structures such as wind turbine blades, is challenging
and time-consuming, where the operators must identify and locate the
defects in the component and assess their criticality. Several studies
have been conducted to investigate the detection of defects by non-
destructive testing (NDT) [8–10]. In addition, many investigations on
damage assessment have been carried out based on either two- (2D)
studies suggest that the damage criticality can be assessed numeri-
cally if realistic wrinkle defects can be included in the finite element
(FE) model [18–21]. Nevertheless, the modelling of such wrinkle ge-
ometries is not that commonly used as it demands detailed defect
characterisation and considerable modelling efforts [18].
The actual wrinkle geometry is commonly simplified to a half-sine
or cosine wave shape. The damage criticality is assessed through either
empirical equations or FE simulations [22]. The simplified wrinkle
geometries are usually characterised by three parameters: wavelength
𝜆, amplitude 𝛿 and a maximum angle of the wrinkle steepness 𝜃 [4,18].
This simplification results in lower modelling efforts at the expense of
poorer quality wrinkle representation, which will lead to less accurate
damage criticality assessments. Despite its limitation to characterise
wrinkle geometries, this method is still widely used in industry and
research due to its simplicity.
The ongoing investigation and development of NDT techniques
are improving their accuracy in wrinkle geometry characterisation.
However, high-fidelity inspection data cannot be fully utilised if the

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ximi@dtu.dk (X.-Y. Miao).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ndteint.2023.102836
Received 17 July 2022; Received in revised form 2 November 2022; Accepted 20 March 2023
Available online 23 March 2023
0963-8695/© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
X. Chen et al.
simplified sinusoidal wave method is applied when modelling the
wrinkle defects. Xie et al. [1] proposed a method to generate FE models
based on NDT results, by modelling symmetrical and single wrinkle de-
fects with a single Gaussian function model. Chen et al. [18] automated
the FE model generation of asymmetric and multiple ply wrinkles
using a multiple Gaussian functions model. Nikishkov et al. [23] also
combined FE modelling with NDT data, and developed a novel al-
gorithm for FE mesh generation from X-ray Computed Tomography
(CT) for unidirectional composites with fibre waviness. However, the
X-ray CT processing for the NDT data gathering is expensive [24] and
the practical scanning sizes of specimens are limited. Xie et al. [21]
developed an algorithm to bridge the NDT data with mechanical prop-
erties characterisation of wrinkled laminates. One of the proposed
methods generated a 3D-map based on photographs of the edge of
experimental test coupons, where the assumption of the wrinkles being
continuous through the width of the coupon was made i.e. models with
single-oriented wrinkles.
The prior mentioned models are applicable to reconstruct 2D out-
of-plane wrinkle defects. However, the actual waviness geometry in
thick composite laminates is generally three-dimensional. For example,
the thick laminates with wrinkles in both longitudinal and transversal
directions commonly exist in wind turbine spar caps, shear webs or/and
aerodynamic shells, which make the blade prone to an early failure
in operation [2]. Herein lies the relevance of modelling realistic 3D
wrinkle defects for a more accurate damage assessment, a reliable and
efficient three-dimensional reconstruction methods is needed to convert
the realistic wrinkle geometry data into the FE models, which can sub-
sequently provide more accurate damage assessments. Zhou et al. [19]
worked on a 3D reconstruction model of composite plies based on 2D
images, aiming to visualise, manipulate, and reconstruct fibre/resin
internal arrangements for macro-mechanical property analysis. Smith
et al. [20] successfully developed a method that utilises ultrasonic
(UT) inspection data to obtain 3D fibre orientation maps, which were
afterwards used to build the FE models of the laminate.
In this work, we propose an image-based geometric modelling
method to automatically reconstruct a thick laminate with 3D ply
wrinkles. The visual images of wrinkles are taken and subsequently
processed to digitise the geometry profiles of the wrinkled laminate,
considerably increasing the efficiency of data gathering, reducing ob-
servational biases as mentioned in a previous study [25], and even-
tually facilitating an automated geometric reconstruction of laminate
wrinkles in finite element analysis. The following work presents a
significant extension of the 2D geometric modelling of thick laminates
proposed in [18] with the following new contributions:
1. Automated visual image processing to characterise ply wrinkle
geometries in thick laminates, digitising inspection images in an
efficient way.
2. Automated geometric reconstruction and finite element meshing
of three-dimensional ply wrinkles for efficient damage criticality
assessment, bridging the gap between non-destructive testing
and quantitative damage evaluation in the 3D space.
In this work, we aim to automatise the full data processing from
visual images to accurate damage criticality assessments of 3D ply
wrinkles in thick laminates. Firstly, the cross-sectional images of the
wrinkled specimen are taken and processed, and the geometries of
distinguished composite plies will be captured by an image processing
tool. The non-detected plies are later included using distance-based
interpolation method. In this step, two methods are provided to charac-
terise the wrinkle geometries from the input images: interpolation and
multiple Gaussian curve fitting. The 3D geometric reconstruction will
be based on the 2D wrinkle images from all four specimen sides, where
the data points in the 3D space will be obtained via inverse distance
weighting interpolation. Subsequently, the coordinates of all the nodes
that can be used to create the FE model are obtained. In addition, the
input files including mesh, material properties, loading and boundary
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NDT and E International 137 (2023) 102836
conditions, are generated automatically for FE modelling and analysis.
In this work, the input files for the commercial software Abaqus [26]
are provided as an example.
In the following Section 2, we present the methodology to bridge
the input specimen images with the final FE model and its damage as-
sessment together with the assumptions made during the development
of the method. In addition, the proposed image processing tool that
automatically characterises the geometry of some distinguished plies
from a 2D wrinkle image is also presented. Subsequently, the geometric
reconstruction method based on the obtained 2D wrinkle geometries is
introduced. Next, the followed process to manufacture a thick wrinkled
glass fibre laminate for the model verification is presented in Section 3.
Section 4 defines the FE model set-up. Thereupon, the results for
the 3D geometric reconstruction model verification are gathered, and
discussed, in Section 2.3. The relevance of modelling 3D wrinkles over
2D ones is also discussed in Section 5.2. Finally, main conclusions and
limitations of the proposed methods and possible future work are stated
in Section 6.
2. Methodology
A method combining an image processing tool that detects wrinkle
geometry from a specimen image, and a geometric reconstruction is
described in this section. The geometry of some distinguished compos-
ite plies is captured from image processing. Two methods are provided
to characterise the wrinkle geometry from the input images: interpo-
lation and curve fitting. The undetected plies are included applying a
distance-based interpolation. An inverse distance weighting interpola-
tion based on the four face image wrinkle geometries is performed to
obtain the 3D geometric reconstruction. Fig. 1 presents the flow chart
of the method, which is further discussed in Sections 2.2 and 2.3.
2.1. Assumptions
The coordinate data of some distinguished composite layers are
obtained by processing the wrinkle images based on the colour contrast
of the image. In order to determine the geometry of the remaining
undetected plies, the following assumptions are made [18]:
(a) The thickness of a single composite layer is constant. The thick-
ness of the resin layers between the composites can change along
all three directions.
(b) The bottom composite layer is assumed to be flat which is
considered valid as it is the layer placed against the mould
during the manufacturing process.
(c) The composite and resin layers are perfectly bonded which will
not always be true but an acceptable assumption for the purpose
of this investigation.
2.2. Image processing
Aiming to automate the geometric reconstruction process, an image
processing tool is integrated to obtain the geometrical data from wrin-
kled specimen images. This tool will allow to capture more realistic
wrinkle shapes and dimensions, as well as avoid time-consuming man-
ual geometrical data gathering. The following method to automatically
model asymmetric with multiple wave ply wrinkles are implemented
in the commercial software package MATLAB [27]. The pseudocode of
the algorithm is presented in Appendix, Algorithm 2.
The steps of image processing are as follows:
I. The face image of the wrinkled specimen as shown in Fig. 2a is
first binarised to obtain a black and white image of the specimen.
Then, a 2D median filter is applied to remove most of the noise
from the image. The function outputs the median value in the m-
by-n neighbourhood around the corresponding pixel. The result
of this filtering is shown in Fig. 2b. Note that the black pixels
represent mainly the wrinkled plies while some represent noise
pixels.
X. Chen et al.
Fig. 1. Flow chart of the presented two phase methodology: (a) Image processing and
(b) Geometric reconstruction.
II. Every black pixel is detected, their positions are stored in the im-
age matrix and the number of plies detected on each column of
the image is counted. Fig. 3b illustrates the number of peaks per
column where the number of plies detected (𝑁) is determined by
the mode of the vector. 8 plies were detected in the case shown
in Fig. 3.
III. The image columns with either more or fewer peaks than 𝑁 are
eliminated, this way removing the noise or non-relevant pixel
clouds.
IV. The continuity of the detected plies is ensured by removing pixel
columns showing vertical shifts higher than 5 pixels from one
column to the other in any of the plies. It is worth mentioning
that ‘5’ is an arbitrary number and should be modified depending
on the resolution of the input image. Furthermore, every isolated
column without neighbouring columns with data is removed in
order to improve the later applied curve fitting.
V. Each of the detected plies has a certain width in the vertical axis
as shown in the black curves of Fig. 2c, hence, the mean value
of these heights constituting the width is calculated (red curves)
for each of the plies along the whole laminate length.
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NDT and E International 137 (2023) 102836
VI. All the data gaps are filled through curve fitting (in the demon-
strated cases, a third order polynomial fitting is used. This
will cover every 2 data gaps between 3 continuous lines, en-
suring a continuous vector along the whole length for each
layer). Note that for specific cases, different curve fitting meth-
ods e.g. polynomial curve, Gauss fitting will be chosen to best
fit the curve.
VII. Scaling of the laminate to metric scale. The wrinkle geometrical
data is obtained from the images in the pixel coordinate system.
The background colour is detected and the image is filtered
according to it. After filtering the specimen image, Fig. 2a, all the
previously detected ply-wrinkles are removed from the image.
This way the background and the specimen are isolated and the
specimen top layer will be defined, as shown in Fig. 4. Note
that the top layer is included in the model onward. The scaling
factor is defined by the relation between the number of pixels
below the top-layer at the left edge of the laminate and the total
laminate thickness in metric scale. Afterwards, the scaling factor
is applied to transform the wrinkle geometry to the metric scale.
VIII. The output of the function depends on the method used for the
2D reconstruction of the wrinkle geometry from the image. If the
Gaussian method is used the obtained coordinate data points are
reduced to around 60 aiming to perform faster multiple Gaussian
curve fittings. Fig. 5 depicts the output coordinate data points
depending on the method selection.
2.3. Geometric reconstruction
The main idea of the geometric reconstruction is to obtain a 3D FE
model of a wrinkled thick laminate based on multiple side face images
of the specimen as shown in Fig. 6. Here, four images respectively
representing each side of the specimen are used to generate the 3D
model. We define that x-, y- and z-axes are aligned with the length,
thickness and width directions, respectively.
Prior to performing the 3D reconstruction, the 2D reconstruction of
each input image has to be done. The image processing tool provides
coordinate data points for each wrinkle’s geometry. However, in order
to ensure that the wrinkle orientation in the 3D space is properly
captured, the 2D wrinkle height data points and their peaks and valleys
will be used for the mesh discretisation of the 𝑥 and 𝑧 axes. Chen
et al. [18] proposed a multiple Gaussian functions model to obtain
the wrinkle heights at the discretised coordinates due to its robustness
and a lower amount of available coordinate data-points. Nonetheless,
considering the high number of data points per wrinkle obtained from
the image processing a linear interpolation method is also included for
this purpose.
The geometric reconstruction is divided into two steps, the 2D
reconstruction of the laminate side face images, and the 3D reconstruc-
tion based on those reconstructed laminate faces.
2D reconstruction
The steps for the geometric reconstruction of the laminate face im-
ages are as follows. The reconstruction of the laminate images from [7]
is taken as an example.
I. The 2D wrinkle geometrical data of the detected plies from
the input images is obtained by means of image processing,
Algorithm 2. Discrete coordinate data points representing the ply
geometries are the output, where the data point density depends
on the chosen method: interpolation or multiple Gaussian curve
fitting.
II. Mesh discretisation in 𝑥∕𝑧 axes. The peaks and valleys of the
2D wrinkle for the images at plane 𝑥𝑦 or 𝑦𝑧 are defined, and
the axis 𝑥∕𝑧 is divided into multiple sections accordingly. Fig. 7
shows seven sections and how they are defined by the laminate
boundary, valley or peak. For the mesh discretisation the 2D
X. Chen et al. NDT and E International 137 (2023) 102836

Fig. 2. Image processing flow chart: (a) Input image of specimen, here the images from [7] are used as an example, (b) filtered image of specimen with noise, (c) Noise removed
image of detected wrinkles and (d) geometry of the wrinkled plies of the specimen. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to
the web version of this article.)

Fig. 5. Image processing output for different reconstruction methods: interpolation

(black curves) and multiple Gaussian function curve fitting (red dots).

Fig. 3. Definition of the number of detected plies: (a) filtered black and white image
with noise pixels and (b) number of peaks/pixel clouds per image column where plies
and pixel noise are detected.

Fig. 6. Exemplary 3D reconstruction based on four wrinkle images.

Source: Input images obtained from [7].

III. The 𝑦 coordinate data points for the previously defined mesh
Fig. 4. Definition of the top layer (blue wrinkle) based on the background colour
contrast of the specimen image, Fig. 2a. (For interpretation of the references to colour
in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
wrinkle’s peaks and valleys at plane 𝑥𝑦 or 𝑦𝑧 are connected,
and the node density on each section is determined. Fig. 7
depicts how the discretisation in 𝑥 axis based on the laminate
face images in plane 𝑥𝑦 is performed, either for straight or
curved wrinkle orientations. The same procedure is followed to
determine the mesh discretisation of the 𝑧 axis based on the
wrinkle peaks on plane 𝑦𝑧. The total number of nodes per axis
is determined by the discretising density.
discretisation in 𝑥∕𝑧 axes are calculated based on the wrinkle
geometry from the image processing. As aforementioned, two
methods are proposed to obtain these data, Fig. 8. The inter-
polation method is based on a linear interpolation considering
the high-density of coordinate data points outputted from the
image processing. The curve fitting method is more suitable for
limited coordinate data points. Similarly to the method proposed
in [18], a multiple Gaussian functions curve fitting method,
Eq. (1), is applied in order to capture the asymmetric multiple
wave wrinkle geometries. Either method provides the 𝑦 coordi-
nate of each ply at the discretised 𝑥∕𝑧 coordinates, which are

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X. Chen et al. NDT and E International 137 (2023) 102836

Fig. 7. Discretisation scheme for longitudinal axis (𝑥) of the specimen to capture
wrinkle orientation: straight wrinkle orientation (red) and curved wrinkle orientation
(green). (a) Front view and (b) top view of specimen. (For interpretation of the
references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version
of this article.)

shown with red dots in Fig. 8.

𝑁𝑖Gauss ( )
∑ 1 (𝑥𝑖 − 𝑏𝑖𝑗 )
2
𝐹𝑖 (𝑥𝑖 ) = 𝑎𝑖𝑗 exp − (1) Fig. 8. Proposed methods to obtain the 𝑦 coordinate data points: Interpolation (a) and
𝑗=1
2 𝑐2𝑖𝑗 Curve fitting (b). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend,
where 𝑎, 𝑏 and 𝑐 are the Gaussian parameters of ply number 𝑖 the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
and Gaussian function 𝑗.
IV. Definition of the undetected composite plies. The image process-
ing tool captures some distinguished plies of the specimen, and
those undetected plies are introduced to the model by a distance-
based interpolation. Similarly to [18] the interpolation is done
at the left-hand side edge of the laminate, where all layers are
uniformly spaced in the thickness direction. Fig. 9 depicts the
interpolation of the undetected layers where the total laminate
thickness is set to 5 mm and the total number of plies to 32.
V. The ply thickness is included to every composite layer which is
assumed to be constant along the whole laminate (Assumption
(a)). Then, the resin and composite layers are differentiated as
shown in Fig. 10.
VI. Refine the mesh. Modified according to the desired number of
elements in the through-thickness direction for each material
layer (composite ply or resin). Fig. 9. Distance based interpolation to perform the full 2D reconstruction of each
image: detected plies by the image processing tool (red wrinkle) and undetected plies
(black curves). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the
3D reconstruction
reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
The 3D geometric reconstruction is performed as follows:

I. The node positions in 𝑥𝑧 plane are defined. Fig. 11 shows an

example of a specimen with straight wrinkle orientations in 𝑥 For wrinkle orientation from 𝑥𝑦 plane:
and 𝑧 directions, where wrinkles in both directions are shown. ( ) ( )
𝐿𝑦𝑧 𝐿𝑦𝑧
The definition of a node position in the 𝑥𝑧 plane is based on the 𝑧′ = 𝑥− 𝑧1 (3)
𝑥2 − 𝑥1 𝑥2 − 𝑥1
cross-section of the lines representing the wrinkle orientations in
𝑥𝑦 and 𝑦𝑧 planes. The following example shows how the nodes For the crossing point of the orientation lines shown in Fig. 11(a)
are defined: (red lines), 𝑧 = 𝑧′ , then the 𝑥 coordinate can be obtained using
The 𝑧 coordinates of the nodes within the domain can be ob- the below equation:
tained by interpolating between 𝑧1 and 𝑧2 . For wrinkle orienta- ( 𝐿 )
𝑦𝑧
tion from 𝑦𝑧 plane: 𝑧1 + 𝑥 −𝑥
( ) 𝑋= ( 2 1
) (4)
𝑧2 − 𝑧1 𝐿𝑦𝑧 𝑧2 −𝑧1
𝑧= 𝑥 + 𝑧1 (2) −
𝐿𝑥𝑦 𝑥 −𝑥
2 1 𝐿 𝑦𝑧

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X. Chen et al. NDT and E International 137 (2023) 102836

Table 1
Geometrical data for manufactured specimen: Wrinkle 1 (WK1) and Wrinkle 2
(WK2).
WK 1 WK 2
Height [mm] 33.45 30.66
Face A
Location [mm] 124 182
Height [mm] 35.41 35.14
Face B
Location [mm] 120 197

Once the 3D printed inserts are correctly positioned over the first
4 biaxial plies, the remaining glass fibre plies are laid. Afterwards,
the laminate is introduced to a vacuum infusion bag, Fig. 14, where
vacuum. Once the vacuum is achieved, the resin is driven by the
Fig. 10. Definition of the composite and resin layers: detected, top and bottom layers
(red), resin (white) and undetected interpolated layers (grey). (For interpretation of pressure into the laminate via the resin inlet tube and distribution
the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version mesh, and the laminate is cured.
of this article.) Finally, the wrinkled laminate shown in Fig. 15 is obtained after
curing and trimming the edges, and its wrinkle geometrical data are
gathered in Table 1. The final dimensions of the laminate are: 317 mm
Finally, the 𝑧 coordinate can be obtained by combining Eqs. (2) in length, 282 mm in width and 25 mm thick on the edges.
and (4):
( )
𝑧2 − 𝑧1 4. Finite element modelling
𝑍= 𝑋 + 𝑧1 (5)
𝐿𝑥𝑦
Note that when the wrinkle orientation is curved (green curves This section defines the set-up for the FE models analysed in Sec-
in Fig. 7), an additional image from the top view of the laminate tion 5.2. The input file for FE modelling is automatically generated
is required to determine the curved wrinkle orientation along the from the developed Matlab script, including the mesh, the loading and
width of the laminate, i.e. 𝑧 direction. A curve fitting method boundary conditions, layup configuration, material properties, element
e.g. polynomial curve fitting will be chosen to best fit the curve. type, and numerical settings. The chosen software for the simulations
The liner functions will then be replaced by the corresponding is Abaqus [26] and its user manual was followed to determine the
fitting functions. implemented format. The format of the input file can be easily modified
II. The 𝑦 coordinates of the nodes are calculated using an inverse in step III. for conducting FE analysis with other software according to
distance weighting interpolation based on the four face images each software’s respective user manual.
of the specimen, Eq. (6) [28]. This interpolation method allows The finite element modelling of progressive failure of two thick
the 3D reconstruction while preserving the laminate side face laminates is performed in Section 5.2. One laminate has a single-
geometries. oriented wrinkle, another has double-oriented wrinkles. The wrinkle
∑ 𝑛 ( 𝑦𝑖 ) images used to generate the model are shown in Fig. 16.
𝑖=1 𝑑
𝑌 (𝑋, 𝑍) = ∑ ( 𝑖 ) (6)
𝑛 1 4.1. Loading and boundary conditions
𝑖=1 𝑑𝑖

where 𝑌 (𝑋, 𝑍) is the height of the point to be estimated, 𝑦𝑖 are The boundary conditions are imposed to simulate a simply sup-
the control points representing the boundary heights of side 𝑖,
ported plate with a free end. Here, the displacement of the 𝑦𝑧 plane at
and 𝑑𝑖 is the perpendicular distance from 𝑦𝑖 to point 𝑌 (𝑋, 𝑍),
𝑥 = 0 of the model is constrained in 𝑥 direction. The node at the origin
see Fig. 11(b) and (c).
of the coordinate system (0, 0, 0) is constrained in 𝑦 and 𝑧 direction,
III. Generate the input file, containing mesh, boundary conditions,
together with their rotations 𝜃𝑦 and 𝜃𝑧 . The displacement and rotation
loading, material properties, lay-up configuration and element
of the node on the opposite corner (0, 0, 𝐿𝑦𝑧 ) is constrained in 𝑦 axis.
types.
A displacement-controlled tensile load in 𝑥 direction is imposed on the
𝑦𝑧 plane at 𝑥 = 𝐿𝑥𝑦 .
3. Manufacturing of wrinkled laminate
4.2. Material properties
A wrinkled specimen is manufactured with the objective of com-
paring the actual specimen’s geometry against the geometry obtained
The modelled laminates are comprised of unidirectional (0) and
by the model to validate the adaptability of the developed method.
biaxial (±45) glass fibre plies. The thickness of each ply is assumed to
The wrinkles are artificially induced to a thick laminate by means of
be 0.1 mm. The total number of composite plies of the laminates is
two 3D printed inserts. These inserts are designed to generate 3D wrin-
32, with the following stacking sequence: [±452 014 ]s . The mechanical
kles; therefore, they present an asymmetric shape that is not constant
properties of the glass fibre plies and the epoxy resin are gathered in
along the wrinkle length. Fig. 12 shows the manufacturing plan of the
Tables 2 and 3, respectively.
designed specimen:
These two inserts induce two asymmetric wrinkles (WKs) in the
specimen, as they were laid during the stacking of the composite 4.3. Numerical settings
plies generating misalignment, as shown in Fig. 13. The designed
specimen is purely made of glass fibre plies, combining unidirectional The discretising density is set to 75 in 𝑥 and 𝑧 direction, and the
(0) and biaxial (±45). The stacking sequence of the 36 glass fibre number of through-thickness elements per resin/composite layer is set
plies for the manufacturing of the laminate is defined as follows: to 1. These will lead to a total of 350,464 elements, with a varying
[±454 ∕W K] [02 ∕ ± 452 ]8 element size dependant on geometry.

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Fig. 11. Proposed method for 3D reconstruction of the wrinkled laminate. Definition of 𝑥 and 𝑧 coordinates based on wrinkle orientation cross-section and 𝑦 coordinate by inverse
distance weighing interpolation. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 14. Vacuum infusion bag during wrinkled specimen curing: 1. Resin inlet tube,
2. Specimen, 3. Wrinkles and 4. Distribution mesh.

Fig. 12. Specimen manufacturing plan with multiple (2) asymmetric wrinkles. The
yellow surfaces represent the 3D printed pieces. (For interpretation of the references
to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Fig. 13. Top and front views of the 3D printed pieces over the first 4 biaxial glass
fibre plies.
Fig. 15. Manufactured glass fibre laminate, and its wrinkled A and B faces. (1) Biaxial
and (2) Unidirectional plies.

4.4. Element type

The following element types are proposed for the composite and
resin layers [26]: • Resin layers: eight-node cohesive elements. Cohesive elements
are proposed for the resin layer in order to perform the damage
• Composite layers: eight-node linear brick elements. propagation analysis.

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Fig. 17. FE model of the 3D wrinkled specimen, FE simulations performed in

Section 5.2.

Fig. 16. Specimen images used to generate the wrinkled models.

Source: Images obtained from [7].

Table 2
Elastic properties of the glass fibre UD and BIAX plies [18]. Subindices refer to the
material’s principal directions: (1) longitudinal, (2) transverse and (3) out-of-plane.
Material Property Value Unit
𝐸11 41.63 GPa
𝐸22 14.93 GPa
𝐸33 13.43 GPa
UD [0]
𝐺12 5.047 GPa Fig. 18. Reconstructed model of the manufactured glass fibre thick laminate.
𝐺23 5.047 GPa Cross-section positions defined along the 𝑧 axis: from I to VII.
𝐺13 5.047 GPa

𝐸11 13.92 GPa

𝐸22 13.92 GPa
Table 4
𝐸33 13.92 GPa
BIAX [±45] Distance to cross-section from face B, Fig. 18.
𝐺12 11.5 GPa
𝐺23 11.5 GPa Cross-section I II III IV V VI VII
𝐺13 4.53 GPa mm 25.39 50.25 75.35 101.15 126.19 151.35 176.17

Table 3
Mechanical properties of epoxy resin [18].
shown in Fig. 15. All images were taken with iPhone 11 under natural
Material Property Value Unit
light conditions with auto-focusing. Then the manufactured laminate
𝐾I 3 × 1014 N m−3
is cut into multiple cross-sectional slices in the transverse direction,
𝐾II 1.15 × 1014 N m−3
𝐾III 1.15 × 1014 N m−3
i.e. 𝑧 axis. This way, the actual cross-sectional geometry obtained from
𝜎Iu 7.5 MPa the laminate slices is compared to the geometry of the laminate model
Epoxy resin 𝜎IIu 15 MPa obtained by the presented 3D reconstruction method.
𝜎IIIu 15 MPa
The positions where the laminate was cut across the wrinkle length
𝐺Ic 200 J m−2
𝐺IIc 1000 J m−2
(transverse direction) are gathered in Table 4. These positions were
𝐺IIIc 1000 J m−2 measured from Face B toward Face A in Fig. 18. The laminate slice with
a cross-section in the position of VII is shown in Fig. 19, where typical
dimensions and measured peak heights are given. Fig. 19(b) shows the
profiles of the detected plies by image processing of the cross-section of
Fig. 17 shows the FE model of the specimen with 3D (double-oriented)
the laminate slice shown in Fig. 18 and by extracting the cross-section
wrinkles using the wrinkle images shown in Fig. 16.
from the reconstructed laminate model. The measured wrinkle heights
are marked as blue circles.
4.5. Computer information
On the one hand, comparing the model peak heights and positions
The simulations were run at the DTU Sophia HPC cluster, which to the measured ones, the model predicts wrinkle dimensions with
consists of 516 computational nodes, of which 484 are 128 GB RAM deviations smaller than 3.11 %. This can be seen in Table 5 which
nodes and 32 are 256 GB RAM nodes [29]. Simulation results are shown gathers the model error against the measured dimensions for both
in Section 5.2. wrinkles at each of the cross-sections. The deviations at WK1 and WK2
in Faces A and B induced a mean peak height error of 2.06 %, and
5. Results and discussion –0.5 %, and a mean location error of 1.22 % and 0.03 % across the
laminate, respectively. Note that the 3D reconstruction of the laminate
5.1. 3D geometric reconstruction is performed based on the geometries obtained from the laminate’s side
face images, therefore, any deviations from the reconstructed side face
This section is focused on the verification of the proposed 3D geometries will induce deviations across the entire laminate.
reconstruction method. Firstly, the 3D geometric reconstruction of the On the other hand, the wrinkle shape characterisation ability is
manufactured thick laminate is performed based on the face images examined by comparing the cross-sectional geometry of the laminate

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Table 6
Wrinkle shape error based on geometry vector integration, model geometry against
captured cross-sectional geometry. Error at each ply per cross-section. Unit: %.
Cross-section
I II III IV V VI VII
1 −4.77 3.27 7.39 9.01 3.50 5.66 −8.36
2 −3.32 −3.19 −3.51 −3.11 −0.92 0.13 −3.13
3 −1.94 −0.28 −2.17 1.90 1.07 −3.09 −1.28
4 −0.50 2.51 0.01 1.64 2.02 −2.09 −1.40
5 −1.24 −0.17 −1.61 1.08 −0.49 −0.07 1.71
Ply number
6 −0.90 −0.21 1.16 1.39 −1.94 −0.95 0.99
7 0.14 −0.82 0.83 1.13 0.69 −1.32 −0.36
8 0.87 1.04 0.30 1.52 −0.29 0.55 1.61
9 −1.01 0.78 0.85 1.23 −0.54 −0.12 0.61
10 1.63 0.31 −0.57 0.09 −0.50 −0.44 0.50

Fig. 19. Geometric reconstruction verification for cross-section VII.

Table 5
Peak error for each wrinkle, WK1 and WK2, at every cross-section. Model geometry
against measured wrinkle dimensions. Unit: %.
Cross-section Height Location
Fig. 20. Stress–strain curve comparison for laminate model with single-oriented (black)
WK1 WK2 WK1 WK2 and double-oriented (blue) wrinkles on left axis. Difference depicted in right axis. The
Face B 2.67 −0.86 1.93 0.05 black circle locates the strain where the damage distributions shown in Fig. 21 are
I 1.58 −1.22 1.18 0.12 extracted. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the
II 1.77 −0.79 1.4 −0.06 reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
III 1.63 −0.89 1.25 −0.36
IV 2.79 0.11 1.01 −0.2
V 2.56 −0.02 0.79 0.35
VI 3.11 −0.12 1.06 0.13
5.2. Finite element simulation results
VII 2.58 −0.11 1.27 0.59
Face A −0.14 −0.63 1.16 −0.35
After the geometric reconstruction of wrinkles from the side face
images, the FE meshes of the entire laminates with 3D wrinkles are
generated which are used to build the FE models for more accurate
model to the geometry obtained from directly processing the cross- damage criticality assessments. Here FE simulation results of a re-
section image of the laminate slice. As prior mentioned the image constructed laminate with a single wrinkle orientation and another
processing tool detects a certain number of plies. In this case, 10 plies with two wrinkle orientations are compared. For that, the longitudinal
were detected for each cross-section, including the lowest wrinkled ply strain 𝜖𝑥𝑥 at the free end and the stress 𝜎𝑥𝑥 at the fixed boundary are
1 and top ply 10. The comparison is based on the errors of the surface calculated.
areas below the curve vectors as follows: The stress–strain curves are shown in Fig. 20. It can be seen that
( ̄ ) the reconstructed model with double-oriented wrinkles (blue curve)
∫ 𝑉𝑖𝑗model − ∫ 𝑉̄𝑖𝑗image
error 𝑖𝑗 = 100 (7) has lower stiffness degradation than the model with a single-oriented
∫ 𝑉̄𝑖𝑗image wrinkle (black curve). The maximum difference of 𝜎𝑥𝑥 is 2.87 % for the
calculated nominal strain range.
where 𝑖 represents the ply number and 𝑗 the cross-section.
The initial extensional stiffness of the laminate model with double-
The areal errors for each of the detected plies (error 𝑖 ) are gathered
oriented wrinkles is almost the same as that of the model with a
in Table 6. Here it can be seen that the overall areal error is relatively
single-oriented wrinkle until a nominal strain level of around 0.75
low for the plies 2 – 10 at every cross-section. Nevertheless, the lowest × 10−3 , where the difference starts to get noticeable. However, the local
wrinkled ply (𝑖 = 1) shows a higher deviation reaching up to 9.01 % degradation or damage level in the laminates is different as can be
error for cross-section IV. This occurred due to the image processing seen in Fig. 21. Here, the degradation under a nominal strain of 0.5
tool not capturing the correct geometry for the lowest wrinkled ply, × 10−3 for two cross-sections: at 11 mm (cross-section A) and 15 mm
causing an increase in the deviation. It must be noted that the image (cross-section B) is shown. The 𝑥 axis represents the loading direction.
processing tool may provide inaccurate geometries if the image is It can be seen that the degradation level in the area close to the
distorted i.e. the image is not taken with the wrinkled side face parallel wrinkle in the loading direction is higher due to the fibre misalignment
to the lens, or other perspectives that might distort the real dimensions. and the consequent decrement of mechanical properties. This can be

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X. Chen et al.
Fig. 21. Degradation of cohesive elements in the reconstructed laminate with single- and double-oriented wrinkles at a nominal strain level of 0.5 × 10−3 . Front view at the top
images, and degradation distribution in transverse to loading direction, 𝑦𝑧 plane, at cross-sections A (𝑥 = 11 mm) and B (𝑥 = 15 mm).
seen by comparing both cross-sections A and B on Fig. 21, where
damage initiates at lower strains for cross-section A than B due to a
lower fibre misalignment in the latter.
The damage evolution shows a continuous and symmetrical degra-
dation across the laminate width (𝑧 axis) in the model with a single-
oriented wrinkle, see the cross-section A of Fig. 21(a). In the lami-
nate model with double-oriented wrinkles, a varying damage evolution
across the width induced by the wrinkle transverse to the loading
direction, plane 𝑦𝑧, is shown, see Fig. 21(b). The degradation level
around the wrinkles in the transverse direction is lower compared
to other areas. This suggests that the occurrence of the transverse
wrinkles in the laminate leads to a lower stiffness degradation, pro-
viding better performance in global stiffness as shown in Fig. 20. It
should be noted that this is highly dependent on the wrinkle geometry,
different wrinkles and orientations lead to different damage evolution
behaviours.
6. Concluding remarks
An automated image-based geometric modelling method is pro-
posed to reconstruct thick laminates with three-dimensional ply wrin-
kles. An image processing tool and a geometric reconstruction method
are developed and demonstrated to automatically create the finite ele-
ment model of realistic ply wrinkles in thick laminates. The presented
method automates the entire process from geometry characterisation
of ply wrinkles using only visual images to three-dimensional finite el-
ement meshing, allowing more accurate and efficient damage criticality
assessment of thick laminates. The accuracy and the efficiency of the
proposed method are experimentally verified with manufactured think
laminates. The cross sections of reconstructed geometries of the thick
laminate obtained from geometric reconstruction show good agreement
with the actual geometries of ply wrinkles from the laminate slices.
It should be noted that the accuracy of the geometric reconstruction
is highly dependent on the visual images taken from ply wrinkles.
Therefore, future work should consider the improvement of the im-
age processing tool. Furthermore, local mesh refinement for resin-rich
region should also be included in the presented geometric modelling
framework. Moreover, the presented method has limitations to model
severe wrinkles in the form of fabric folding with reverse curvatures.
Further investigations on its capability of reconstructing curved wrinkle
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NDT and E International 137 (2023) 102836
orientations should be conducted. Nevertheless, the geometric mod-
elling method presented in this work can facilitate efficient geometric
modelling of complex three dimensional ply wrinkles in thick laminates
for more accurate and efficient damage criticality assessments using
finite element analysis.
In this study, we uses four images of all sides, or four cross sections,
of the specimen using a visual camera to reconstruct the 3D ply wrin-
kles. In reality, the cross sectional visual images are often not available
unless the specimen is cut. The further study may consider to adapt
the proposed method to handle the images taken from nondestructive
testing methods such as X-ray CT and UT scanning, successfully doing
so, the damage criticality of thick laminates with realistic ply wrinkles
can be assessed more accurately and efficiently.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Xiao Chen: Conceptualisation, Methodology, Supervision, Analysis,
Writing – review & editing. Asier Barbeito Albizu: Methodology,
Implementation, Analysis, Visualisation, Writing – original draft. Xing-
Yuan Miao: Methodology, Implementation, Simulation, Analysis, Vi-
sualisation, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review &
editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Christen Malte Markussen for the
useful discussion on the experimental plan, and manufacturing of the
laminate. The authors would also like to thank the laboratory techni-
cians, Nicki Jeppesen and Knud Stenbæk Nielsen, for manufacturing the
specimens.
X. Chen et al. NDT and E International 137 (2023) 102836

Appendix A. Pseudocodes

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