Integrated Ultrasonic Technique for Characterization of Composite Materials (original) (raw)

Application of ultrasonic transducers for investigation of composite materials

In this article the developed low frequency contact type ultrasonic transducers and its application are presented. The special scanner carriage, the adjuster, the single holder and tandem holder were manufactured and used in the measurement carried out on the test sample of composite material. The mechanical system enables to support accurately the stable force pressing the transducer to the composite sample. The characteristics of the low frequency transducers in the time and frequency domains are presented. The composite materials such as CFRP and GFRP were investigated using the developed transducers and a contact technique. It was demonstrated that investigated approach enables to detect non-uniformities in composite materials.

Determination of the properties of composite interfaces by an ultrasonic method

Materials Science and Engineering: A, 1990

The feasibility of using a recently developed ultrasonic technique to determine certain macroscopic properties of the interface zones of composite laminates is studied. The strong influence of the elastic properties and the thickness of the interface zone on the phase velocity of guided waves is demonstrated by means of a simple model of a single fiber embedded in a layer of the matrix material The overall dynamic elastic moduli of a unidirectional graphite-epoxy composite laminate are determined through inversion of guided wave dispersion data obtained by the leaky Lamb wave experiment. The thickness and elastic properties of the interlaminar interface zone in a cross-ply graphite-epoxy laminate are also estimated by the same approach.

Implementation of the ultrasonic through-transmission technique for the elastic characterization of fiber-reinforced laminated composite

DYNA

Laminated composites are widely used in applications when a high strength-to-weight ratio is required. Aeronautic, naval and automotive industries use these materials to reduce the weight of the vehicles and, consequently, fuel consumption. However, the fiber-reinforced laminated materials are anisotropic and the elastic properties can vary widely due to non-standardized manufacturing processes. The elastic characterization using mechanical tests is not easy, destructive and, in most cases, not all the elastic constants can be obtained. Therefore, alternative techniques are required to assure the quality of the mechanical parts and the evaluation of new materials. In this work, the implementation of the ultrasonic through-transmission technique and the characterization of some engineering materials is reported. Isotropic materials and laminated composites of carbon fiber and glass fiber in a polymer matrix were characterized by ultrasound and mechanical tests. An improved methodolog...

Damage evaluation in composite laminate by the use of ultrasonic lamb wave

2012

This paper presents some ultrasonic methods to detect and to characterize defects, possibly obtained after damage caused in composite materials. Firstly, artificial defects are located by two piezoelectric transducers. A two-dimensional ultrasonic cartography C-scan, performed section by section, at different positions which took part through the thickness of a carbon fiber-reinforced plastic composite beam, to be analyzed. Next, fundamental symmetric S0 mode of Lamb waves is used to measure the size of the delamination by scanning over the surface beneath which a delamination lies. A remarkable decrease in the arrival time due to the delamination is detected, and the delamination length can be calculated based on a simple model for Lamb-wave propagation. Furthermore, the delamination edge is located as a sudden decrease in the amplitude. The rate of decrease in amplitude of an individual pulse cycle was detected to vary with the depth of the delamination, being most sensitive to de...

Methods of ultrasonic testing, as an effective way of estimating durability and diagnosing operational capability of composite laminates used in aerospace industry

Eksploatacja i Niezawodnosc - Maintenance and Reliability

The paper presents selected issues in the field of exploitation research and the prediction capabilities of durability of composite laminates by ultrasonic methods used in the aerospace industry. Some research methods allow to set the quality parameters and operating in real aircraft structures. The study determined the relationship between the amplitude decrease of the ultrasonic wave and the level of porosity for hand lay-up manufactured glass / epoxy laminate using the method Through-Transmission of representative in C (TT C-Scan). In addition, showing the ability of amplitude attenuation imaging methods to detect and determine the extent of damage of high quality laminate and metal fiber composite after at low-dynamic velocity. It was specified real area an internal damage in FML laminates subjected to dynamic impact on low-energy, for which there was no visible damage in the outer layers. The study also determined the relationship between energy and the impact of dynamic surfac...

Ultrasonic Analytic-Signal Responses From Polymer-Matrix Composite Laminates

IEEE transactions on ultrasonics, ferroelectrics, and frequency control, 2018

Ultrasound has been used to inspect composite laminates since their invention but only recently has the response from the internal plies themselves been considered of interest. This paper uses modeling techniques to make sense of the fluctuating and interfering reflections from the resin layers between plies, providing clues to the underlying inhomogeneities in the structure. It shows how the analytic signal, analyzed in terms of instantaneous amplitude, phase, and frequency, allows 3-D characterization of the microstructure. It is found that, under certain conditions, the phase becomes locked to the interfaces between plies and that the first and last plies have characteristically different instantaneous frequencies. This allows the thin resin layers between plies to be tracked through various features and anomalies found in real composite components (ply drops, tape gaps, tape overlaps, and out-of-plane wrinkles), giving crucial information about conformance to design of as-manufa...