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Damage Quantification in Aluminium-CFRP Composite Structures using Guided Wave Wavenumber Mapping
(2019)
The use of composite materials is associated not only with the advantages of weight reduction and improved structural performance but also with the risk of barely visible impacts or manufacturing damages. One of the promising techniques for the detection and characterisation of such damages is based on ultrasonic guided wave propagation and analysis. However, the multimodal nature and dispersive behaviour of these waves make their analysis difficult. Various signal processing techniques have been proposed for easier interpretation of guided wave signals and extraction of the necessary information about the damage. One of them is the wavenumber mapping which consists of creating a cartography of the wavenumber of a propagating mode over an inspected area, using a dense wavefield acquisition measured for example with a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer. This technique allows both the quantification of the in-plane size and the depth of damage, for example, impact-induced delamination in composite laminates.
In this contribution, wavenumber mapping is applied to a delaminated aluminium-CFRP composite structure which corresponds to composite-overwrapped pressure vessels used for storing gases in aerospace and automotive industries. The analysis of experimental data obtained from measurements of guided waves propagating in an aluminium-CFRP composite plate with impact-induced damage is performed. The output of the imaging is a three-dimensional representation of the delamination induced by the impact. Good agreement between conventional ultrasonic testing and guided wave damage mapping can be found.
Composite-overwrapped pressure vessels (COPV) are increasingly used in the transportation industry due to their high strength to mass ratio. Throughout the years, various designs were developed and found their applications. Currently, there are five designs, which can be subdivided into two main categories - with a load-sharing metal liner and with a non-load-sharing plastic liner. The main damage mechanism defining the lifetime of the first type is fatigue of the metal liner, whereas for the second type it is fatigue of the composite overwrap. Nevertheless, one damage type which may drastically reduce the lifetime of COPV is impact-induced damage. Therefore, this barely visible damage needs to be assessed in a non-destructive way to decide whether the pressure vessel can be further used or has to be put out of service. One of the possible methods is based on ultrasonic waves. In this contribution, both conventional ultrasonic testing (UT) by high-frequency bulk waves and wavenumber mapping by low frequency guided waves are used to evaluate impact damage. Wavenumber mapping techniques are first benchmarked on a simulated aluminium panel then applied to experimental measurements acquired on a delaminated aluminium-CFRP composite plate which corresponds to a structure of COPV with a load-sharing metal liner. The analysis of experimental data obtained from measurements of guided waves propagating in an aluminium-CFRP composite plate with impact-induced damage is performed. All approaches show similar performance in terms of quantification of damage size and depths while being applied to numerical data. The approaches used on the experimental data deliver an accurate estimate of the in-plane size of the large delamination at the aluminium-CFRP interface but only a rough estimate of its depth. Moreover, none of the wavenumber mapping techniques used in the study can quantify every delamination between CFRP plies caused by the impact, which is the case for conventional UT. This may be solved by using higher frequencies (shorter wavelengths) or more advanced signal processing techniques. All in all, it can be concluded that imaging of complex impact damage in fibre-reinforced composites based on wavenumber mapping is not straightforward and stays a challenging task.
The Scaled Boundary Finite Element Method (SBFEM) is a semi-analytical method that shows promising results in modelling of guided ultrasonic waves. Efficiency and low computational cost of the method are achieved by a discretisation of the boundary of a computational domain only, whereas for the domain itself the analytical solution is used. By means of the SBFEM different types of defects, e.g. cracks, pores, delamination, corrosion, integrated into a structure consisting of anisotropic and isotropic materials can be modelled.
In this contribution, the SBFEM is used to analyse the propagation of guided waves in a structure consisting of an isotropic metal bonded to anisotropic carbon fibre reinforced material. The method allows appropriate wave types (modes) to be identified and to analyse their interaction with different defects. Results obtained are used to develop a structural health monitoring system for composite pressure vessels used in automotive and aerospace industries.