Non-destructive Inspection of Multi-layered Composite Using Ultrasonic Signal Processing

• Published in: IOP conference series. Materials Science and Engineering Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 012045 - 6
• Main Authors: Ng, S C, Ismail, N, Ali, Aidy, Sahari, Barkawi, Yusof, J M, Chu, B W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 01.02.2011
• Subjects: Algorithms; Composite materials; Corrosion resistance; Defects; Echoes; Failure; Feature extraction; Glass fiber reinforced plastics; Impact damage; Inspection; Laminar composites; Laminates; Multilayers; Nondestructive testing; Signal processing; Stiffness; Ultrasonic testing
• ISSN: 1757-899X; 1757-8981; 1757-899X
• DOI: 10.1088/1757-899X/17/1/012045

Composites exhibit higher strength and stiffness, better design practice and greater corrosion resistance compare to metal material. However, composites are susceptible to impact damage and the typical damage behaviour in the laminated composites is fibre-breakage and delamination. Detection of failure in laminated composites is complicated compared with ordinary non-destructive testing for metal materials as they are sensitive to echoes drown in noise due to the properties of the constituent materials and the multi-layered structure of the composites. In the current study, the detection of failure in multi-layered composite materials is investigated. To obtain a high probability of defect detection in composite materials, signal processing algorithms were used to resolve echoes associated with defects in glass fibre-reinforced plastics (GRP) detected by using ultrasonic testing. Pulse-echo method with single transducer was used to transmit and receive ultrasound. The obtained signals were processed to reduce noise and to extract suitable features. Results were validated on GRP with and without defects in order to demonstrate the feasibility of the method on defect detection in composites.