*3.4. Fiber Volume Fraction in the Bio-Composite*

The aligned fiber images were placed against a dark background and their images were acquired using a digital microscope (AM311S, BigCatch, Torrance, CA, USA). The images were processed into binary numerical arrays, and the percentage of white pixels (representing the fibers) was calculated in order to determine the fiber fraction. The fraction was normalized to the final bio-composite thickness. The calculations were done using Matlab code.
