Nondestructive Damage Characterization

Purpose  

To investigate and characterize material damage from low-speed impacts. Equipment is often used on test articles during mechanical testing to track/characterize damage progression(e.g. interplay delamination)
Equipment/Test Method
xray ct

X-ray Computer Tomography (CT)
– Provides 3-D information on sub-surface damage (e.g., cracks, delamination)
ultra

Ultrasonic Transmission (UT)
– Used to characterize impact-induced delamination in composite materials

 

Typical/Recent Experiments

  • Impact tests done on composite panels

– Damage characterized by UT/X-ray CT

– Compression testing done to determine mechanical performance reduction

  • X-ray CT characterization of metallic- and polymer-matrix composites

– Provides 3-D information on internal configuration

– Information used to create a specimen-specific finite-element model

  • UT scans conducted during mechanical testing of composites to track propagation of delamination