COMPOSITE MATERIAL DAMAGE DETECTION WITH LOW COST EDDY CURRENT SENSORS

摘要

One of the challenges that still exist for composite materials is the inspection of large surfaces. Manufacturing errors and damage caused by daily operations such as impact damage leading to internal delaminations are hard to detect with conventional NDI techniques. Eddy current inspection shows growth potential towards composite materials. Within carbon fiber eddy currents can be induced, although to a much lesser extent than metallic structures. This research project focuses on the question how low cost eddy current sensors can be applied to scan large surfaces of CFRP material. Developments within the sensor market, increasing the availability of sensitive and affordable sensors, create possibilities to scan large surface areas at low prices by using eddy current sensors. Although composite materials show an anisotropic nature, measurements have shown sufficient penetration capabilities. The application of eddy current sensors is different for composites but this in itself also offers new opportunities, such as for reverse engineering purposes like the detection of fiber orientations in stacked laminates.