Acquisition of a Laser Ultrasound System for Studying Adhesive Effects on Surface Bonded Ultrasound Transducers and Material Damage Monitoring
Abstract
Structural Health Monitoring is an upcoming technology that enables monitoring the health conditions of structural components in real time. Successful implementation of SHM systems in military and civilian infrastructures could potentially result in tremendous benefits in safety assurance, operational cost reduction, and better design concepts. Damage detection based on ultrasound waves is one of the most popular and well-researched techniques employed in SHM systems. These ultrasound inspection techniques, however, have been mainly designed for detecting large damage such as cracks. Detecting microscale damage such as corrosion and early fatigue plastic deformations requires more in-depth understanding of ultrasound propagation and scattering characteristics. The design of the ultrasound transducers also needs to be optimized to achieve robust and more sensitive performances. The acquisition of a laser ultrasound system, including a high power pulsed laser for ultrasound generation and an optical interferometer receiver for ultrasound sensing, is requested to support research in the general area of ultrasound based SHM. The requested equipment will introduce new research capabilities at the PIsÕ labs, including 1) measuring mechanical properties at the grain level; 2) characterizing ultrasound properties of soft adhesive materials; 3) visualizing ultrasound-microscale damage interaction. In the near future, the requested equipment will benefit three projects that are relevant to the Department of Defense, namely optimizing surface mounted piezoelectric wafer active transducers (PWATs) for sensitization corrosion detection, understanding ultrasound coupling from structures to remote optical fiber ultrasound sensors, and validating surface roughness based damage indices for crack initiation prediction. The overarching goal of these projects is to develop a physics-based framework for the optimum design of surface bonded ultrasound transducers and to expand ultrasound-based SHM to micro-scale damage detection. The requested equipment will contribute to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) educational activities undertaken by the PIs at all levels; post-doctoral, doctoral, master, undergraduate, community college, and high-school. The mentorship will focus not only on the traditional best research practices but also on acquiring soft skills and understanding of the social implications of research results from a more holistic perspective. As a minority serving institution, UTA has extensive outreach activities to attract high school students to pursue higher educations on the STEM fields. The PIs will collaborate with these programs to provide opportunities for students from under-represented groups to experience the university environment and engineering researches. This document is publicly releasable.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2019
- Source ID
- W911NF1910521
Entities
People
- Haiying Huang
Organizations
- Army Contracting Command
- Office of the Secretary of Defense
- University of Texas at Arlington