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Carbon Fiber Reinforced Aluminum Laminate (CARALL) is a good system for energy absorption through plastic deformation in aluminum and micro-cracking in the composite layers. Moreover, CARALL FMLs also provide excellent impact resistance due to the presence of aluminum layer. The focus of this research is to characterize the CARALL behavior under dynamic conditions. High strain rate tests on sheet laminate samples have been carried out by means of direct Split Hopkinson Tension Bar. The sample geometry and the clamping system were optimized by FEM simulations. The clamping system has been designed and optimized in order reduce impedance disturbance due to the fasteners and to avoid the excessive plastic strain outside the gauge region of the samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effectively and accurately detecting cracks or defects in critical engine components, such as turbine engine blades, is very important for aircraft safety. Sonic Infrared (IR) Imaging is such a technology with great potential for these applications. This technology combines ultrasound excitation and IR imaging to identify cracks and flaws in targets. In general, failure of engine components, such as blades, begins with tiny cracks. Since the attenuation of the ultrasound wave propagation in turbine engine blades is small, the efficiency of crack detection in turbine engine blades can be quite high. The authors at Wayne State University have been developing the technology as a reliable tool for the future field use in aircraft engines and engine parts. One part of the development is to use finite element modeling to assist our understanding of effects of different parameters on crack heating while experimentally hard to achieve. The development has been focused with single frequency ultrasound excitation and some results have been presented in a previous conference. We are currently working on multi-frequency excitation models. The study will provide results and insights of the efficiency of different frequency excitation sources to foster the development of the technology for crack detection in aircraft engine components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We showed our work on modeling turbine blade crack detection in Sonic Infrared (IR) Imaging with a method of creating flat crack surface in finite element analysis (FEA) in last year's QNDE paper. This modeling has been carried out continuously as part of model-assisted study on crack detection in aircraft engine turbine blades. We have presented that Sonic IR Imaging NDE is a viable method to detect defects in various structures. It combines ultrasound excitation for frictional heating in defects and infrared imaging to sense this heating, and thus to identify the defects. It is a fast wide-area imaging technology. It only takes a second to image a large area of a target sample. When an aircraft is in flight, the turbine engine blades operate under high temperature and high cyclic stresses. Thus, fatigue cracks can form after many hours of operation. Sonic IR Imaging can be used to detect such cracks. However, we still need to better understand contributions of parameters/factors in the crack detection process with Sonic IR Imaging. FEA modeling can help us to reveal certain aspects through the data it produces where experimental work cannot achieve. Upon the model we presented last year, a two-step simulation process was designed to simulate the important aspects in our experiments. These include a newly designed model for the ultrasound transducer which delivers mechanical energy to the sample and the implementation of static force while engaging the transducer to the sample. In this paper, we present the ideas and the results from the new model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sonic Infrared Imaging, as a young NDE technology, has drawn a lot of attentions due to it's fast, wide-area evaluation capability, and due to its broad applications in different materials such as metal/metal alloy, composites and detection of various types of defects: surface, subsurface, cracks, delaminations/disbonds. Sonic IR Imaging combines pulsed ultrasound excitation and infrared imaging to detect defects in materials. The sound pulse causes rubbing due to non-unison motion between faces of defects, and infrared sensors image the temperature map over the target to identify defects. However, concerns have also been brought up about possible damages which might occur at the contact spots between the ultrasound transducer from the external excitation source and the target materials. In this paper, we present our results from a series of systematically designed experiments on carbon-fiber reinforced laminated composite panels to address the concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sonic Infrared (IR) Imaging Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) technology has shown inherent advantages for defect detection in aircraft structures. It can image a wide area within a second or two for metal material targets. Due to high stresses aircraft engine turbine blades bear during their operation, fatigue cracks can form after a number of hours of service. Sonic IR imaging shows its great potential for this application. However, interaction of the sonic excitation and subsequent crack heating requires fundamental understanding of physical and thermal processes in complex geometries such as turbine blades. Simulation modeling can provide results to better understand contributions of some parameters where experimental arrangements are hard to produce. Because of the irregular shapes of turbine blades, their finite element analysis (FEA) models are always dominated by tetra elements. In the usual procedure of using tetra elements, it is very difficult to create flat crack surface in such complex shapes. A new method to create a flat crack surface is designed for an actual blade. In this paper, we will present data of modeling turbine blade crack detection with external ultrasound excitation as the results of applying this new method, guided by our experimental Sonic IR imaging study on the blade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Impact damage remains a major issue for aerospace composite structures. Considerable internal damage can occur in laminated composites from external impact loads in service with only minimal visual detectability from the surface of the structure. Damage can occur at any ply depth without visual indications on the front surface. Accurate depth measurements can aid repair assessments. This method is focused on investigating depth profiling of composite delamination by using Sonic-IR, which is a nondestructive evaluation method (NDE) technique that makes images of defects using an infrared camera with an ultrasonic transducer as a stimulation source. The depth profiling relies on the time delays of the temperature increases at the surface from the different defect depths. To process the time vs. temperature data captured from the camera, polynomial curve fitting was used. A mathematical model has been built to calculated time vs. second derivative of temperature curves for depth measurements. The samples used to calibrate the mathematical model data are carbon fiber composite panels with ply thickness variance and inserts with known depths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Composites are becoming more important materials in commercial aircraft structures such as the fuselage and wings with the new B787 Dreamliner from Boeing which has the target to utilize 50% by weight of composite materials. Carbon-fiber reinforced composites are the material of choice in aircraft structures. This is due to their light weight and high strength (high strength-to-weight ratio), high specific stiffness, tailorability of properties, design flexibility etc. Especially, by reducing the aircraft's body weight by using such lighter structures, the cost of fuel can be greatly reduced with the high jet fuel price for commercial airlines. However, these composites are prone to impact damage and the damage may occur without any observable sign on the surface, yet resulting in delaminations and disbonds that may occur well within the layers. We are studying the impact problem with carbon-fiber reinforced composite panels and developing SonicIR for this application as a fast and wide-area NDE technology. In this paper, we present our results in studying composite structures including carbon-fiber reinforced composite materials, and preliminary quantitative studies on delamination type defect depth identification in the panels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At last year’s QNDE conference, we presented our development of Sonic IR imaging technology in metal structures, with results from both experimental studies and theoretical computing. In the latest aircraft designs, such as the B787 from Boeing, composites have become the major materials in structures such as the fuselage and wings. This is in contrast to composites’ use only in auxiliary components such as flaps and spoilers in the past. With today’s advanced technology of fabrication, it is expected the new materials can be put in use in even more aircraft structures due to its light weight and high strength (high strength-to-weight ratio), high specific stiffness, tailorability of properties, design flexibility etc. Especially, with increases in fuel cost, reducing the aircraft’s body weight becomes more and more appealing. In this presentation, we describe the progress on our development of Sonic IR imaging for aircraft composite structures. In particular, we describe the some unexpected results discovered while modeling delaminations. These results were later experimentally verified with an engineered delamination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]