Ultrasonic and X-ray Inspection of a High Performance Carbon Fiber Composite for Automotive Applications

摘要

Ultrasonic and radiographic inspections can be used to rapidly qualify carbonrncomposites in automotive production environments as well as detect in-servicerndamage. These evaluations have been demonstrated on high quality automotivernthermoset composites with woven, unidirectional, and random-chopped carbon fibersrnand with a variety of layups including unidirectional, 0/90, and quasi-isotropic. Thernperformance on flat plaques and flanged beams as well as adhesively-bondedrnassemblies has been assessed.rnHigh resolution ultrasonic imaging both with raster scanners and phased arrays canrndetect voids and foreign matter including the inter-ply location. Using ultrasonic 3-drndatasets, the orientation of individual plies can be determined within areas as small asrn30-mm. Three dimensional ultrasonic images have been compared with bi-directionalrnSEM images of the same area. Ultrasonic imaging is especially useful for detectingrnnon-visible collision damage. The differences found from impact, flex, and crushrndamage have been determined. 3-d renderings of the damage have been made.rnLow-energy radiography has even higher in-plane resolution and can detectrnfeatures such as voids below 0.1-mm in size in regions as big as 30-cm. The ability ofrnlow-energy computed tomography to resolve ply information in component sizernregions has also been evaluated.