NDTnet 1998 Aug, Vol.3 No.8

Abstract

Impact damage may occur either at the manufacturing level or during in-service application of a material. Because impacts are the primary cause of delamination they must be detected at an early stage and the extent of damage characterised in order to evaluate the structural integrity of a structure. The difficulty to inspect heterogeneous materials with conventional non-destructive testing (NDT) methods is a well known fact. As new composite materials are being developed, these methods may behave differently and show limitations affecting their efficiency. Up to now, there has been very little work analysing the performance of NDT methods for the evaluation of thermoplastic toughened CFRP materials. The resistance to impact damage of a thermoplastic toughened CFRP material currently used in the manufacture of the Boeing 777 was evaluated non-destructively. Several [0/45/-45/90] 8-plies panels of thermoplastic toughened CFRP material were impacted with energies ranging from 2 to 14 Joules, and non-destructive characterisation of these samples was carried out using some of the most currently used NDT methods by industry. These include visual examination, ultrasonic C-scan, infrared thermography, radiography, shearogaphy and eddy currents. These NDT methods were used to quantitatively evaluate the resistance to impact damage of this new thermoplastic toughened CFRP material. In addition, a comparison of the efficiency of these methods to accurately detect and quantify impact damage in thermoplastic toughened CFRP material was made and the needs of industry for composites evaluation discussed.

Abstract Source:
Preview of Abstracts, International Conference on Advanced Materials - 1998, Hurghada, Egypt, 15 - 18 December 1998

Full-Text Source:
International Conference on Advanced Materials - 1998, Hurghada, Egypt, 15 - 18 December 1998

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