TY - CONF A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Dohse, Elmar A1 - Bartusch, Jürgen A1 - Köppe, Enrico A1 - Kreutzbruck, Marc A1 - Hillger, W. A1 - Amos, J. M. T1 - Ultrasonic testing of adhesively bonded joints using air-coupled cellular polypropylene transducers N2 - In air-coupled ultrasonic testing, the impedance mismatch between the transducer and the air is commonly being solved by adding matching layers to composite transducers. To avoid the difficult technological procedure regarding matching layers, some new piezoelectric materials have been proposed. Most promising are ferroelectrets, which are charged cellular polymers, having ferroelectric and consequently piezoelectric properties. In particular, the extreme softness of cellular polypropylene (cPP) leads to a high piezoelectric constant and to a good impedance match with the air, making matching layers redundant. Its elasticity modulus below 1 MPa causes an additional effect not observed with common piezoelectric materials: that is the electrostrictive effect, here defined as the thickness change due to the attractive force between the transducer electrodes. This effect exceeds the piezoelectric effect at excitation voltages over 1 kV. The extreme softness of cPP leads also to high flexibility, enabling easy focusing by bending the transducer. We have developed air-coupled ultrasonic transducers based on cPP. This includes the electrical matching networks for the transmitter and for the receiver. The transmitter is excited with voltages up to 2.5 kV, so that the electrostrictive effect dominates, leading to sound pressure around 145dB at the transducer surface. These transducers have been applied for testing carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer plates, adhesive joints and other composite structures. Here we report about ultrasonic transmission of two types of adhesive joints. The first one is multi-layer aluminium components with some artificial disbonds, which are common in aerospace industry, and the second one is an aluminium-steel joint with polyurethane adhesive, which is used in automotive industry. T2 - ECNDT 2014 - 11th European conference on non-destructive testing CY - Prague, Czech Republic DA - 06.10.2014 KW - Air-coupled KW - Ultrasonic testing KW - Ferroelectret KW - Cellular polypropylene KW - Transducer KW - Adhesive joint PY - 2014 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-317204 SN - 978-80-214-5018-9 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Brno University of Technology AN - OPUS4-31720 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Bartusch, Jürgen A1 - Döring, Joachim A1 - Dohse, Elmar A1 - Lange, Thorid A1 - Hillger, W. A1 - Kreutzbruck, Marc T1 - Air-coupled ferroelectret ultrasonic transducers applied to testing of fiber-reinforced polymers N2 - Air-coupled ultrasound is an emerging testing technique applied to materials with sensitive surfaces. One of the most important applications is on components made of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers, which find their use in aerospace and increasingly in automotive industry. A promising alternative to piezoceramic transducers with matching layers is the use of ferroelectrets, which are charged cellular polymers exhibiting piezoelectric and ferroelectric properties. Ferroelectret transducers for air-coupled ultrasonic testing, including their electronic interface, were developed and compared with conventional air-coupled probes, all having a resonance frequency between 200 and 250 kHz. The cPP transducers were excited with square pulses of 2.5 kV, whereas two different piezoceramic transducers with similar properties were excited with 800 V. The signal-to-noise ratio was evaluated and compared. Two test blocks, (i) a sandwich-structured composite with a honeycomb core between plates of carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) containing an impact and (ii) a CFRP plate with an impact and several flat-bottom holes, were inspected in transmission. The ferroelectret transducers achieved a SNR at least 11 dB higher than the conventional probes. The impacts were clearly visible with all probes, but less noisy with ferroelectret transducers. The flat T2 - 12th International conference of the Slovenian society for non-destructive testing - Application of contemporary non-destructive testing in engineering CY - Portoroz, Slovenia DA - 04.09.2013 KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Transducer KW - Ferroelectret KW - Cellular polypropylene KW - Fiber-reinforced polymers PY - 2013 SN - 978-961-93537-0-7 SP - 43 EP - 50 AN - OPUS4-29927 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - CONF A1 - Gaal, Mate A1 - Döring, Joachim A1 - Bartusch, Jürgen A1 - Lange, Thorid A1 - Hillger, W. A1 - Brekow, Gerhard A1 - Kreutzbruck, Marc T1 - Ferroelectret transducers for air-coupled ultrasonic testing of fiber-reinforced polymers N2 - Ferroelectrets are promising materials for air-coupled ultrasonic transducers. A transducer made of polarized cellular polypropylene, including its electronic interface, was developed and compared with conventional air-coupled probes. Test pieces of fiber-reinforced polymer containing impact flaws and flat-bottom holes were inspected in transmission. The ferroelectret transducers achieved a considerably higher signal-to-noise ratio. The impacts were clearly visible with all transducers, but less noisy with ferroelectret transducers. The flat-bottom holes were better detectable than with a conventional probe with about the same focus size. T2 - 39th Annual review of progress in quantitative nondestructive evaluation CY - Denver, Colorado, USA DA - 15.07.2012 KW - Air-coupled ultrasound KW - Transducer KW - Ferroelectret PY - 2013 SN - 978-0-7354-1129-6 DO - https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4789224 SN - 0094-243X SN - 1551-7616 N1 - Serientitel: AIP conference proceedings – Series title: AIP conference proceedings VL - 1511 SP - 1534 EP - 1540 AN - OPUS4-27747 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -