scholarly journals Nondestructive Evaluation of Porosity Content in the Curved Corner Section of Composite Laminates Using Focused Ultrasonic Waves

Author(s):  
Takuma Okahara ◽  
Shiro Biwa ◽  
Akira Kuraishi

The feasibility of utilizing focused ultrasonic waves for the nondestructive evaluation of porosity content in curved corner sections of carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminate structures is investigated numerically as well as experimentally. For this purpose, two-dimensional (2D) finite element simulations are carried out to clarify the wave propagation behavior and the reflection characteristics when the nonfocused or focused ultrasonic wave impinges on the corner section of unidirectional and quasi-isotropic CFRP laminates from the inner side via water. The corresponding reflection measurements are carried out for the CFRP corner specimens in the pulse-echo mode using nonfocusing, point-focusing, and line-focusing transducers. The numerical simulations and the experiments show that the use of focused ultrasonic waves is effective in obtaining clearly distinguishable surface and bottom echoes from the curved corner section of CFRP laminates. The influence of the porosity content on the reflection waveforms obtained with different types of transducers is demonstrated experimentally. The experimental results indicate that the porosity content of the CFRP corner section can be evaluated based on the amplitude ratio of the surface and bottom echoes obtained with focusing transducers, if the calibration relation is appropriately established for different ply stacking sequences.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 379
Author(s):  
Sang-Gyu Lee ◽  
Daekyun Oh ◽  
Jong Hun Woo

Ship structures made of glass fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite laminates are considerably thicker than aircraft and automobile structures and more likely to contain voids. The production characteristics of such composite laminates were investigated in this study by ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE). The laminate samples were produced from E-glass chopped strand mat (CSM) and woven roving (WR) fabrics with different glass fiber contents of 30–70%. Approximately 300 pulse-echo ultrasonic A-scans were performed on each sample. The laminate samples produced from only CSM tended to contain more voids compared with those produced from a combination of CSM and WR, resulting in the relative density of the former being lower than the design value, particularly for high glass fiber contents of ≥50%. The velocity of the ultrasonic waves through the CSM-only laminates was also lower for higher glass fiber contents, whereas it steadily increased for combined CSM–WR laminates. Burn-off tests of the laminates further revealed that the fabric configuration of the combined CSM–WR laminates was of higher quality, prevented the formation of voids, and improved inter-layer bonding. These findings indicate that combined CSM–WR laminates should be used to achieve more accurate ultrasonic NDE of GFRP composite structures.


2008 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-341
Author(s):  
Shigeki YASHIRO ◽  
Junji TAKATSUBO ◽  
Nobuyuki TOYAMA ◽  
Tomonaga OKABE ◽  
Nobuo TAKEDA

Author(s):  
Dale Chimenti ◽  
Stanislav Rokhlin ◽  
Peter Nagy

Physical Ultrasonics of Composites is a rigorous introduction to the characterization of composite materials by means of ultrasonic waves. Composites are treated here not simply as uniform media, but as inhomogeneous layered anisotropic media with internal structure characteristic of composite laminates. The objective here is to concentrate on exposing the singular behavior of ultrasonic waves as they interact with layered, anisotropic materials, materials which incorporate those structural elements typical of composite laminates. This book provides a synergistic description of both modeling and experimental methods in addressing wave propagation phenomena and composite property measurements. After a brief review of basic composite mechanics, a thorough treatment of ultrasonics in anisotropic media is presented, along with composite characterization methods. The interaction of ultrasonic waves at interfaces of anisotropic materials is discussed, as are guided waves in composite plates and rods. Waves in layered media are developed from the standpoint of the "Stiffness Matrix", a major advance over the conventional, potentially unstable Transfer Matrix approach. Laminated plates are treated both with the stiffness matrix and using Floquet analysis. The important influence on the received electronic signals in ultrasonic materials characterization from transducer geometry and placement are carefully exposed in a dedicated chapter. Ultrasonic wave interactions are especially susceptible to such influences because ultrasonic transducers are seldom more than a dozen or so wavelengths in diameter. The book ends with a chapter devoted to the emerging field of air-coupled ultrasonics. This new technology has come of age with the development of purpose-built transducers and electronics and is finding ever wider applications, particularly in the characterization of composite laminates.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Subair Syed Akbar Ali ◽  
Mato Pavlovic ◽  
Prabhu Rajagopal

Abstract Additive Manufacturing (AM) is increasingly being considered for fabrication of components with complex geometries in various industries such as aerospace and healthcare. Control of surface roughness of components is thus a crucial aspect for more widespread adoption of AM techniques. However, estimating the internal (or ‘far-side’) surface roughness of components is a challenge, and often requires sophisticated techniques such as X-ray computed tomography, which are difficult to implement online. Although ultrasound could potentially offer a solution, grain noise and inspection surface conditions complicate the process. This paper studies the feasibility of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in conjunction with ultrasonic measurements for rapid estimation of internal surface roughness in AM components, using numerical simulations. In the first models reported here, a pulse-echo configuration is assumed, whereby a specimen sample with rough surfaces is insonified with bulk ultrasonic waves and the backscatter is used to generate A-scans. Simulations are carried out for various combinations of the model parameters, yielding a large number of such A-scans. A neural network algorithm is then created and trained on a subset of the datasets so generated using simulations, and later used to predict the roughness from the rest. The results demonstrate the immense potential of this approach in inspection automation for rapid roughness assessments in AM components, based on ultrasonic measurements.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
RYOMA AOKI ◽  
RYO HIGUCHI ◽  
TOMOHIRO YOKOZEKI

This study aims to conduct a fatigue simulation for predicting the stiffness degradation of thin-ply composite laminates with several ply thicknesses. For the simulation, a fatigue evolution model of intra-laminar damage in thin-ply composite laminates considering the effect of ply thickness was proposed. The intra-laminar damage evolution was modeled using the continuum damage mechanics model and the static and fatigue evolution law were formulated by relating the transverse crack density to the damage variable. The finite element simulation using the proposed model was conducted to predict the stiffness degradation of the laminates as a function of the number of loading cycles. The simulation results show that the experimental data can be reproduced by using the proposed fatigue model.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-284
Author(s):  
Dris El Abassi ◽  
Bouazza Faiz ◽  
Abderrahmane Ibhi ◽  
Idris Aboudaoud

We present the results of an ultrasonic pulse-echo technique and its potential to classify iron meteorites into hexahedrites, octahedrites and ataxites by determining their acoustic impedance and phase velocity. Our technique has been adapted from those used in the field of ultrasonic non-destructive investigation of a variety of materials. The main advantage of our technique is that it does not need any preparation of the meteorites like cutting and etching and therefore is rapid, easy and non-destructive. In essence, a broadband acoustic transducer is used in a monostatic pulse-echo configuration which means that both the transducer and the meteorite sample are located in a water bath and adjusted in the way that the ultrasonic pulse shit the meteorite sample at normal incidence. Then the reflected pulses from the front and rear faces of the meteorite sample are measured with the emitting transducer, digitally recorded and processed to analyze the signal. After Fourier transforming the echoed pulses from the front and the rear face of the meteorite sample, the calculated reflection coefficients yield the phase velocity and the acoustic impedance. Our study investigates a variety of iron meteorites collected in Morocco and other countries and it helps to understand how the nickel content of these meteorites affects the acoustic impedance. It reveals that the acoustic impedance of iron meteorites increases with increasing nickel content, so that a further refinement of our technique might have the potential to classify iron meteorites directly and reliably into hexahedrites, octahedrites and ataxites without destroying them.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 2372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Sellitto ◽  
Salvatore Saputo ◽  
Francesco Di Caprio ◽  
Aniello Riccio ◽  
Angela Russo ◽  
...  

Composite laminates are characterized by high mechanical in-plane properties and poor out-of-plane characteristics. This issue becomes even more relevant when dealing with impact phenomena occurring in the transverse direction. In aeronautics, Low Velocity Impacts (LVIs) may occur during the service life of the aircraft. LVI may produce damage inside the laminate, which are not easily detectable and can seriously degrade the mechanical properties of the structure. In this paper, a numerical-experimental investigation is carried out, in order to study the mechanical behavior of rectangular laminated specimens subjected to low velocity impacts. The numerical model that best represents the impact phenomenon has been chosen by numerical–analytical investigations. A user defined material model (VUMAT) has been developed in Abaqus/Explicit environment to simulate the composite intra-laminar damage behavior in solid elements. The analyses results were compared to experimental test data on a laminated specimen, performed according to ASTM D7136 standard, in order to verify the robustness of the adopted numerical model and the influence of modeling parameters on the accuracy of numerical results.


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