Challenges and solutions for ultrasonic phased-array inspection of polymer-matrix composites at production rates

Hopkins, Deborah; Datuin, Marvin; Brassard, Michael

doi:10.1063/1.5099830

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Conversely, regions with severe backwall tapering or with complex backwalls (for example radii) are notoriously challenging to inspect, since the backwall reflects the ultrasonic energy at high angles with respect to the incident beam and the received echo is often not received or strongly attenuated. Previous work has demonstrated the possibility to inspect the radii of structural stiffening stringers and ribs using concave probes, placing them coaxially to the surfaces of radii, when inspecting from the radii side, or phased array probes defining appropriate delay laws [21,[25][26][27] . Although this approach maximises the ultrasonic energy that enters the part, it does not change the fact that the backwall reflection is often impossible to receive.…”

Section: The Need To Increase Speed and Improve Part Inspectabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Correction of B-scan distortion for optimum ultrasonic imaging of backwalls with complex geometries

Davi¹,

Mineo²,

MacLeod³

et al. 2020

insight

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Ultrasound undergoes refraction and reflection at interfaces between media of different acoustic refractive indices. The most common ultrasonic method (pulse-echo) monitors the reflected energy to infer the presence of flaws, whereas the lower amplitude of refracted signals is ignored. When the reflector is orientated normally with respect to the ultrasonic beam, the received echo signal shows the maximum amplitude. The pulse-echo method also relies on monitoring the amplitude of the backwall echo to identify or confirm the presence of defects. This works well for parts with constant thickness and with planar backwalls. Unfortunately, parts with complex backwalls are common to many industrial sectors. For example, applications such as aerospace structures often require parts with complex shapes. Assessing such parts reliably is not trivial and can cause severe downtime in the aerospace manufacturing processes or during in-service inspections. This work aims to improve the ultrasonic inspectability of parts with complex backwalls, through sending ultrasonic beams from the frontwall side. Ultrasonic phased array probes and state-of-the-art instrumentation allow ultrasonic energy to be sent into a part at wide ranges of focusing depths and steering angles. This allows for tracking of the backwall profile, thus hitting it normally and maximising the amplitude of the reflected echo at any point. However, this work has shown that a cross-sectional scan resulting from multiple ultrasonic beams, which are sent at variable incidence angles, can present significant geometrical distortion and cannot be of much use for accurate defect visualisation and sizing. This paper introduces a generalised algorithm developed to remove geometric distortions and the effect that variable refraction coefficients have on the transmitted and received amplitudes. The algorithm was validated through CIVA simulations for two example parts with complex backwalls, considering isotropic materials.

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Section: The Need To Increase Speed and Improve Part Inspectabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Correction of B-scan distortion for optimum ultrasonic imaging of backwalls with complex geometries

Davi¹,

Mineo²,

MacLeod³

et al. 2020

insight

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Breakthroughs came from the team of Dale Chimenti [15][16][17][18][19][20] and others [21][22][23]. A direct method to probe the stiffness of composites is based on multiple-angle incidence, done in the form of a transducer rotation along a sphere [24] or through focused sound with the help of phased array technology [25,26] or otherwise [19,[27][28][29]. A significant challenge is to work on an air-coupled system [30,31], which is not addressed in the current paper.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical study of beam shape adaptation by anisotropic disk covering transducer or metamaterial

Declercq

2023

Acta Acust.

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Metamaterials are intensely explored for their capabilities to modify sound beams. In addition to frequency filtering, acoustic lenses offer intriguing possibilities for shaping sound beams. For the time being, the versatility of metamaterials remains limitless. In beam-shape adaptation, however, their complexity suggests that manufacturers of transducers could benefit from combining metamaterials with more conventional materials. This paper investigates the transmission of a circumscribed beam through a stratum of anisotropic material to examine the change in beam shape after transmission. The incident sound is presumed to originate from a conventional transducer, possibly coated with a metamaterial to modify the sound field, before being transmitted through the anisotropic layer. Different incident beam shapes, such as conical-like, Gaussian, and pillar beams, are investigated. While the results are not exhaustive, they demonstrate the beam shape’s adaptability.

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Defects Imaging in Corner Part with Surface Adaptive Ultrasonic and Focusing in Receiving (FiR) Strategy

Luo,

Liu,

et al. 2024

J Nondestruct Eval

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Challenges and solutions for ultrasonic phased-array inspection of polymer-matrix composites at production rates

Cited by 4 publications

References 1 publication

Correction of B-scan distortion for optimum ultrasonic imaging of backwalls with complex geometries

Correction of B-scan distortion for optimum ultrasonic imaging of backwalls with complex geometries

Numerical study of beam shape adaptation by anisotropic disk covering transducer or metamaterial

Defects Imaging in Corner Part with Surface Adaptive Ultrasonic and Focusing in Receiving (FiR) Strategy

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