LASER-ULTRASONIC METHOD OF ACOUSTIC IMPEDANCE MEASUREMENT FOR QUANTITATIVE POROSITY ESTIMATION OF CROSS-PLY CARBON FIBER REINFORCED PLASTIC MATERIALS

Abstract

A method of measuring the acoustic impedance of carbon fiber plastics based on the laser optoacoustic effect is proposed and experimentally realized. Measurement of the acoustic impedance of the studied composite is made by the value of the antiderivative of ultrasonic pulse reflected from the interface between the immersion liquid and the sample. A method for determining the porosity of a material by the measured value of the acoustic impedance, based on the dependence of the material density and the velocity of propagation of longitudinal acoustic waves in it on its porosity, is presented. Porous samples of crossply reinforced carbon plastics with three types of carbon fiber lay-up schemes were studied. It was found that the studied carbon fiber plastics have a non-uniform distribution of local porosity in the plane of carbon fabric stacking. It is also shown that the variation of the local porosity in the sample depends on the fiber laying scheme. It is shown that the porosity value obtained by X-ray computed tomography coincides with the results of laser-ultrasonic measurements. The advantage of the proposed method is the possibility of rapid diagnosis of porosity with one-way access to the object under study without measuring its dimensions and mass, which can be used for composite structures of complex shape.