Elastic waves in the nondestructive testing of fibre composites (Q1915623)

In this review article, attention is confined to composite materials formed of long parallel fibres of a high modulus elastic material embedded in an isotropic elastic matrix. Common examples are carbon fibres embedded in a thermosetting or thermoplastic resin, and metal fibres in a metal matrix. Such materials are constructed in thin sheets whose elastic properties are orthotropic or transversely isotropic, and these sheets are frequently fabricated into laminated load bearing structures. These laminates may contain defects arising either from fabrication or from service damage, and the problem of locating and identifying the defects is of prime concern. The defects may be due to ply delamination, fibre breakage matrix cracking or debonding between the fibres and the matrix. There are two different approaches which use elastic waves to locate the above defects. In the ultrasonic testing method, the structure is interrogated by launching an elastic wave at some surface location, and either monitoring the return at the same location or monitoring the propagated disturbance at one or more specified surface points. The alternative method, known as acoustic emission, consists in subjecting the structure to loads which gives rise to the initiation of elastic waves from the defect. In the simplest form, the acoustic emission technique consists in counting the number of signals which exceed a given threshold amplitude and arrive at a specified surface location. In both approaches, the potential exists for extracting considerably more information concerning the location and nature of the defects from a more detailed analysis of the received signals.