HIGHLIGHTS OF NASA'S ROLE IN DEVELOPING STATE-OF-THE-ART NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION FOR COMPOSITES

摘要

Since the 1970's, when the promise of compositesrnwas being pursued for aeronautics applications,rnNASA has had programs that addressed therndevelopment of NDE methods for composites.rnThese efforts included both microscopic andrnmacroscopic NDE. At the microscopic level, NDErninvestigations interrogated composites at thernsubmicron to micron level to understand arncomposite's microstructure. A novel microfocus CTrnsystem was developed as well as the sciencernunderlying applications of acoustic microscopy to arncomposite's component material properties. On thernmacroscopic scale NDE techniques were developedrnthat advanced the capabilities to be faster and morernquantitative. Techniques such as stiffness imaging,rnultrasonic arrays, laser based ultrasound, advancedrnacoustic emission, thermography, and novel healthrnmonitoring systems were researched. Underlyingrnthese methods has been a strong modelingrncapability that has aided in method development