Noncontact Composite Damage Inspection and Characterization using Planar Array Capacitive Imaging

Abstract

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites are widely used in Naval aircraft structures.Although they offer significant improvements over conventional metals, they are also susceptibleto unique damage modes, such as delamination. Not only is delamination invisible to the nakedeye, but they can also be hard to detect and characterize using conventional nondestructiveinspection (NDI) technologies such as ultrasonic inspection (UI). The aim of this research is totarget the time-consuming elements of current Navy UI methods and to demonstrate improveddamage characterization in reduced time, while also lessening the burden on technicians to prepare,inspect, and report component damage. This study will design and validate experimentally anoncontact, 3D, capacitive imaging system for assessing single- and multi-layer delamination inCFRP composite panels. The technique proposed is based on electrical capacitance tomography(ECT), where the electrical permittivity of a sensing region is reconstructed from patterns ofnoncontact capacitance measurements.

Document Details

Document Type
DoD Grant Award
Publication Date
Jun 17, 2020
Source ID
N000142012648

Entities

People

  • Kenneth J. Loh

Organizations

  • Office of Naval Research
  • United States Navy
  • University of California, San Diego

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Optical Fiber Sensing and Electromagnetic Propagation.
  • Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Structures.