Abstract
This paper presents a nondestructive analysis of debonds in an adhesively-bonded carbon-fibre reinforced composite structure under variable temperature conditions. Towards this, ultrasonic guided wave propagation based experimental analysis and numerical simulations are carried out for a sample composite structure to investigate the wave propagation characteristics and detect debonds under variable operating temperature conditions. The analysis revealed that the presence of debonds in the structure significantly reduces the wave mode amplitudes, and this effect further increases with the increase in ambient temperature and debond size. Based on the debond induced differential amplitude phenomenon, an online monitoring strategy is proposed that directly uses the guided wave signals from the distributed piezoelectric sensor network to localize the hidden debonds in the structure. Debond index maps generated from the proposed monitoring strategy show the debond identification potential in the adhesively-bonded composite structure. The accuracy of the monitoring strategy is successfully verified with non-contact active infrared-thermography analysis results. The effectiveness of the proposed monitoring strategy is further investigated for the variable debond size and ambient temperature conditions. The study establishes the potential for using the proposed damage index constructed from the differential guided wave signal features as a basis for localization and characterization of debond damages in operational composite structures.
Highlights
Carbon-fibre reinforced composite (CFRC) structures are widely used in the aerospace, automotive and marine industries, due to their effective fire and corrosion resistance, acoustic insulation, high stiffness/weight ratios, construction flexibilities and lightweight advantages [1,2,3,4]
In the process, combined experimental investigations in the laboratory and finite element method (FEM)-based 3D numerical simulations in ABAQUS are carried out for the analysis of ultrasonic guided wave propagation in a sample adhesively-bonded carbon-fibre composite structure (ACCS) under different temperature conditions are carried out using an edge-reflection free sparse network of piezoelectric transducer (PZT)
In order to study the characteristics of ultrasonic guided wave propagation and its interaction with debond in ACCS under variable temperature conditions, a series of laboratory experiments has been carried out using a temperature-control chamber and a pre-defined actuatorsensor network of
Summary
Carbon-fibre reinforced composite (CFRC) structures are widely used in the aerospace, automotive and marine industries, due to their effective fire and corrosion resistance, acoustic insulation, high stiffness/weight ratios, construction flexibilities and lightweight advantages [1,2,3,4]. Ultrasonic guided wave propagation-based SHM strategies have proven their potential to effectively identify hidden defects in complex layered materials [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15]. The present study is devoted towards the development of a reliable, fast and efficient online SHM strategy to identify the hidden debonds in an adhesively-bonded carbon-fibre composite structure (ACCS) under variable operating temperature conditions. In the process, combined experimental investigations in the laboratory and FEM-based 3D numerical simulations in ABAQUS are carried out for the analysis of ultrasonic guided wave propagation in a sample ACCS under different temperature conditions are carried out using an edge-reflection free sparse network of PZTs. A probabilistic analysis based SHM strategy is prepared in MATLAB, in order to detect debonds under variable ambient temperature conditions. The effectiveness of the SHM strategy is cross-verified with the non-contact active IRT analysis results
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