Abstract. A new high operating temperature (HOT) midwave infrared (MWIR) imaging core is experimentally evaluated for use in automated inspection of composite impact damage by line scan thermography (LST). This evaluation is undertaken as part of a broader effort to develop an autonomous inspection capability for aerospace composite structures, deployable by ground and aerial robotic systems. The performance of the HOT MWIR core is assessed against a high-performance cooled photon-detector camera, an uncooled microbolometer core and an uncooled microbolometer camera, on two carbon epoxy laminate test specimens: one containing flat-bottom-hole synthetic defects and the other barely visible impact damage (BVID) introduced by controlled low-velocity impact. These test panels are scanned using a 3-axis robotic LST apparatus, at speeds of 25 and 100 mm/s. The HOT MWIR core is shown to match the detection performance of the cooled camera, and to significantly outperform both microbolometers. The high performance of this core combined with its relatively low mass, size and power consumption offers an encouraging basis for the development of a drone-deployable LST inspection capability.
The paper presents an instrument for measuring the direct transmission factor of luminous flux in inhomogeneous media. In the first part the basic concepts are introduced and the problem of transmission measurements for the specific case of inhomogeneous solids is defined. The following part examines the typical situation of solid polymers and discusses the main requirements for transmission measurements. The criteria for choosing the apertures and the errors likely to occur are also studied in this section. The instrument is described in § 3. The following section presents the performance of the instrument working as a low-angle light-scattering photo-goniometer and indicates its resolution.
In the summer of 2007, the faculty and student team (FaST) program from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana supported by NSF, DOE, and LS-LAMP conducted a detailed study to design, simulate, build and test a micro-pattern x-ray fluorescence gas detector at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). We used AutoCAD to design the detector's parts that were machined and assembled to form the proposed detector. We have used Maxwell software to predict the electrical field and potential in the drift and amplification regions of the detector. This paper describes the hands on learning process and in depth research accomplishment that the undergraduate students have undertaken in the ten weeks of intensive summer learning. A detailed Maxwell simulation for the gas electron multiplier (GEM) and the micro mesh gaseous (MICROMEGAS) detectors are shown and experimental results of the double GEM fluorescence x-ray detector are depicted.
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