Terahertz spectroscopy approach of the fiber orientation influence on CFRP composite solid laminates

Terahertz ray (T-ray) imaging applications have provided one of the most promising new powerful nondestructive evaluation techniques, and new application systems are under process development for area applications. Detecting flaws and defects in fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) composite laminates due to flaws in FRP composite laminate that affect laminate properties, including stiffness, strength, and thermal behavior, is very important. In this study, a new time-domain spectroscopy system was utilized for detecting and evaluating the flaws in FRP solid composite laminates. Extensive experimental measurements in reflection mode were made to map out T-ray images. In particular, electromagnetic properties, such as refractive index, were estimated in this characterization procedure. The estimates of properties were in good agreement with known data. Using these characteristic material properties, we successfully demonstrated the characteristics of the T-ray behavior propagating through FRP composites. Furthermore, layup effect and flaws of FRP composite laminates were observed in reflection mode, and limitations were discussed in the T-ray processing.     

Vibration and stability of angle-ply laminated composite plates subjected to in-plane stresses

Natural frequencies and buckling stresses of angle-ply laminated composite plates are analyzed by taking into account the effects of shear deformation, thickness change and rotatory inertia. By using the method of power series expansion of displacement components, a set of fundamental dynamic equations of a two-dimensional higher-order theory for thick rectangular laminates subjected to in-plane stresses is derived through Hamilton's principle. Several sets of truncated approximate theories are applied to solve the eigenvalue problems of a simply supported thick laminated plate. In order to assure the accuracy of the present theory, convergence properties of the fundamental natural frequency are examined in detail. Numerical results are compared with those of the published existing theories. The modal displacement and stress distributions in the thickness direction are obtained and plotted in figures. The present global higher-order approximate theories can predict the natural frequencies, buckling stresses and modal stresses of thick multilayered angle-ply composite laminates accurately within small number of unknowns which is not dependent on the number of layers.     

Pitch-catch ultrasonic study on unidirectional CFRP composite laminates using Rayleigh wave transducers

The importance of carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) has been generally recognized, and CFRP composite laminates have become widely used. Thus, a nondestructive technique would be very useful for evaluating CF/epoxy composite laminates. A pitch-catch UT signal is more sensitive than is a normal incidence backwall echo of a longitudinal wave in composites. The depth of the sampling volume where the pitch-catch UT signal came from is relatively shallow, but the depth can be increased by increasing the separation distance of the transmitting and receiving probes. Moreover, a method is utilized to determine the porosity content of a composite lay-up by processing micrograph images of the laminate. The porosity content of a composite structure is critical to the overall strength and performance of the structure. The image processing method developed utilizes software to process micrograph images of the test sample. The results from the image processing method are compared with existing data. Beam profile is characterized in unidirectional CFRP using pitch-catch Rayleigh probes. The one-sided and two-sided pitch-catch techniques are utilized to produce C-scan images with the aid of an automatic scanner. The pitch-catch ultrasonic signal corresponds with the simulated results of unidirectional CFRP composites.     

A procedure to determine the correct thickness of an object with confocal microscopy in case of refractive index mismatch

A difference in refractive index (n) between immersion medium and specimen results in increasing loss of intensity and resolution with increasing focal depth and in an incorrect axial scaling in images of a confocal microscope. Axial thickness measurements of an object on such images are therefore not exact. The present paper describes a simple procedure to determine the correct axial thickness of an object with confocal fluorescence microscopy. We study this procedure for a specimen that has a higher refractive index than the immersion medium and with a thickness up to 100 µm. The measuring method was experimentally tested by comparing the thickness of polymer layers measured on axial images of a confocal microscope in case of a water–polymer mismatch to reference values obtained from an independent technique, i.e. scanning electron microscopy. The case when the specimen has a lower refractive index than the immersion medium is also shown by way of illustration. Measured thickness data of a water layer and an oil layer with the same actual thickness were obtained using an oil-immersion objective lens with confocal microscopy. Good agreement between theory and experiment was found in both cases, consolidating our method.     

应力波载荷作用下CFRP、GFRP层板动态拉伸性能的实验研究

介绍了Hopkinson杆冲击拉伸实验设备以及实验技术,推导了应力、应变的计算公式。利用Hopkinson杆加载装置对CFRP、GFRP层合板进行了冲击拉伸实验研究,得到不同应变率下CFRP、GFRP层板的应力、应变(бε)曲线,以及断裂强度、拉伸模量、断裂应变等力学参数,以期对复合材料层板在冲击拉伸情况下动态力学行为和变形、破坏机理有一个初步的认识。     

Optical characteristics of thin film coating and measurement of its thickness

Theoretical analysis of the optical characteristics of thin film coatings was carried out. The relations of refractive index, phase change and film thickness were studied. As a result, a new optical method of measuring thickness of thin metallic coatings was developed. Further, the technique can also be used to find the refractive index of the thin film and the phase change of the light beam owing to being reflected from the coating. It is shown that the new method is very accurate for measuring the thin coating thickness. A specimen coating was tested with a polarised laser beam and the measured phase change falls between the reasonable range of 0 and π.     

Investigation on thrust force in rotary ultrasonic drilling of CFRP using Brad drill

Abstract

The carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) has been widely used in manufacturing industry due to its excellent mechanical and physical properties. Brad drill, as a representative of new-type structural drills, is applied in processing of CFRP. Meantime, rotary ultrasonic drilling (RUD) is regarded as a superior method for machining composite materials, due to its outstanding performance in lowering thrust force and improving processing quality. However, there are few reports about RUD with Brad drill in CFRP drilling. In this study, the theoretical model of thrust force for RUD of CFRP using Brad drill is developed. The dynamic uncut chip thickness and average uncut chip thickness in RUD are obtained based on kinematic characteristics analysis. After that, the structure of Brad drill is analyzed and thrust force of the cutting lip is molded. Then a theoretical model is proposed to predict the thrust force. Finally, pilot experiments are conducted for the model verification. Experimental results show that the trends of thrust force agree well with the thrust force model and the prediction error is less than 10%.     

Free vibration of laminated composite plates using two variable refined plate theory

Free vibration of laminated composite plates using two variable refined plate theory is presented in this paper. The theory accounts for parabolic distribution of the transverse shear strains through the plate thickness, and satisfies the zero traction boundary conditions on the surfaces of the plate without using shear correction factors. Equations of motion are derived from the Hamilton's principle. The Navier technique is employed to obtain the closed-form solutions of antisymmetric cross-ply and angle-ply laminates. Numerical results obtained using present theory are compared with three-dimensional elasticity solutions and those computed using the first-order and the other higher-order theories. It can be concluded that the proposed theory is not only accurate but also efficient in predicting the natural frequencies of laminated composite plates.     

一种精确测量微量液体折射率的新方法

摘 要：本文介绍了一种用玻璃毛细管精确测量微量液体折射率的新方法。这种方法基于共轴球面光学系统的成像原理,通过读数显微镜对吸入待测液体后毛细管的焦点位置进行单一参数的测量,进而计算出待测液体的折射率。用此方法测量了纯水、乙醇、乙二醇、丙三醇的折射率,各种待测样品的需要量小于0.002 ml;对纯水和乙醇样品,折射率测量精度优于0.0003;对乙二醇和丙三醇样品,折射率测量精度优于0.0007。选用适当的毛细管参数,可以进一步提高这种测量方法的测量精度,扩展折射率的测量范围。该方法具有待测液体用量极少、使用的设备简单、操作方便和折射率测量精度高的特点。论文对实验测量误差以及进一步提高测量精度作了详细的分析和讨论。     

Characterization of CFRP Laminates’ layups using through-Transmitting ultrasound waves

Ultrasound waves interact strongly with the orientation and sequence of the plies in a layup when propagating in the thickness direction of composite laminates. Also the layup orientation greatly influences its properties in a composite laminate. If the layup orientation of a ply is misaligned, it could result in the part being rejected and discarded. Now, most researchers cut a small coupon from the waste edge and use a microscope to optically verify the ply sequences on important parts. This may add a substantial cost to the production since the test is both labor intensive and performed after the part is cured. A nondestructive technique would be very beneficial, which could be used to test the part after curing and requires less time than the optical test. Therefore we have developed, reduced, and implemented a novel ply-by-ply vector decomposition model for composite laminates fabricated from unidirectional plies. This model decomposes the transmission of a linearly polarized ultrasound wave into orthogonal components through each ply of a laminate. High probability is found, by comparisons between the model and tests, in characterizing cured layups of the laminates by using the proposed method.     

Interlaminar fracture toughness of CFRP laminates with silk fibers interleave

Interlaminar fracture toughness of CFRP laminates with silk fibers interleave was evaluated in this paper. Silk fibers were obtained from silkworm cocoon. Long silk fibers were wound around a bobbin and cut into specimen size. Resin films were bonded on both sides of a sheet of silk fibers. Silk fibers with resin films were put between [0₁₂] and [0₁₂] and cured by following the curing process. Evaluation of mode I and mode II interlaminar fracture toughness was accomplished by DCB and ENF test, respectively. Mode I interlaminar fracture toughness of CFRP laminates with silk fibers interleave was 59% higher than that of CFRP. Mode II interlaminar fracture toughness of CFRP laminates with silk fibers interleave was 44% higher than that of CFRP. It seems that CFRP laminates with silk fibers interleave will be useful to structures which need high interlaminar fracture toughness.     

Utilizing confocal microscopy to measure refractive index of articular cartilage

This study proposes a method for measuring the refractive index of articular cartilage within a thin and small specimen slice. The cartilage specimen, with a thickness of about 50 μm, was put next to a thin film of immersion oil of similar thickness. Both the articular cartilage and immersion oil were scanned along the depth direction using a confocal microscope. The refractive index mismatch between the cartilage and the immersion oil induced a slight axial deformation in the confocal images of the cartilage specimen that was accurately measured by a subpixel edge‐detection‐based technique. A theoretical model was built to quantify the focal shift of confocal microscopy caused by the refractive index mismatch. With the quantitative deformations of cartilage images and the quantified function of focal shift, the refractive index of articular cartilage was accurately interpolated. At 561 nm, 0.1 MPa and 20 °C, the overall refractive index of the six cartilage plugs was 1.3975 ± 0.0156. The overall coefficient of variation of all cartilage specimens was 0.68%, which indicated the high repeatability of our method. The verification experiments using distilled water showed a minimal relative error of 0.02%.     

光纤表面等离子体共振光谱对待测介质折射率的响应特性研究

基于表面等离子体共振理论, 利用TFCalc软件仿真研究待测介质折射率在1.2到1.37范围内的光纤表面等离子体共振反射光谱特性。研究表明,入射角一定时,表面等离子体共振的最佳膜厚随待测介质折射率的减小而减小;当银膜厚度和入射角度不变时,表面等离子体共振波长随待测介质折射率的减小向短波长方向移动,共振吸收峰逐渐变窄,传感灵敏度提高。     

表面粗糙材质的复折射率反演

由于目标偏振特性研究中表面粗糙材质的复折射率很难准确反演,本文对常用的Vimal-Milo反演法进行了改进。分析了粗糙表面的偏振二向反射特性,指出了Vimal-Milo法采用的"偏振度-角度相关"反演模式的不足。然后,提出了基于"相对偏振分量-角度相关"的反演方法 ,推导出复折射率的反演公式,并设计了对应的全局搜索算法。最后,利用绿漆及铝板的偏振特性测试数据,对提出的复折射率反演算法进行了验证,并基于此对偏振二向反射特性进行了正向推演验证。反演数据表明:使用本文提出的复折射率反演方法,表面粗糙铝板的复折射率的反演精度较Vimal-Milo法有了显著提高,实部和虚部与真值的误差均在±0.01以内,且评价因子小于0.07;推演数据表明:表面相对光滑的绿漆的偏振二向反射亮度的推演结果为Vimal-Milo法得到的均方根误差的1/5,与测试数据的误差在0.01以内。得到的结果证明本文所提复折射率反演方法可用于光滑及粗糙表面材质的复折射率反演。     

Free-edge stresses in general composite laminates

In the present study, by starting from the reduced form of elasticity displacement field for a long flat laminate, an analytical method is developed in order to accurately calculate the interlaminar stresses near the free edges of generally laminated composite plates under extension. The constant parameter appearing in the reduced displacement field, which describes the global rotational deformation of a laminate, is appropriately obtained by employing an improved first-order shear deformation theory. The accuracy and effectiveness of the proposed first-order theory are verified by means of comparison with the results of Reddy's layerwise theory as a three-dimensional benchmark. Reddy's layerwise theory is then utilized for analytical and numerical investigations of the boundary-layer stresses within arbitrarily laminated composite plates. Various numerical examples are presented for the interlaminar normal and shear stresses along the interfaces and through the thickness of laminates in the vicinity of the free edges. The effects of end conditions of laminates, fibers orientation angles as well as the stacking sequences of the layers within laminates, and geometric parameters on the boundary-layer stresses are presented and discussed.     

Error Analysis of Indirect Broadband Monitoring of Multilayer Optical Coatings using Computer Simulations

Results of studying the errors of indirect monitoring by means of computer simulations are reported. The monitoring method is based on measuring spectra of reflection from additional monitoring substrates in a wide spectral range. Special software (Deposition Control Simulator) is developed, which allows one to estimate the influence of the monitoring system parameters (noise of the photodetector array, operating spectral range of the spectrometer and errors of its calibration in terms of wavelengths, drift of the radiation source intensity, and errors in the refractive index of deposited materials) on the random and systematic errors of deposited layer thickness measurements. The direct and inverse problems of multilayer coatings are solved using the OptiReOpt library. Curves of the random and systematic errors of measurements of the deposited layer thickness as functions of the layer thickness are presented for various values of the system parameters. Recommendations are given on using the indirect monitoring method for the purpose of reducing the layer thickness measurement error.     

待测介质折射率对光纤SPR光谱的特性研究

为提高光纤传感器的灵敏度和检测精度,达到精确测量的目的。基于表面等离子体共振(SPR)理论及TFCalc软件,仿真研究光纤表面等离子体共振传感器的反射光谱特性,考查待测介质折射率在一定范围内变化对反射光谱特性的影响。研究结果表明,当入射角一定时,表面等离子体共振的最佳膜厚随待测介质折射率的减小而减小;当膜厚和入射角度不变时,表面等离子体共振波长随待测介质折射率的减小向短波长方向移动。共振吸收峰随待测介质折射率的减小移动的距离越小,且逐渐变窄,传感器的灵敏度逐渐提高。     

Multi-objective design optimization of composite laminates using discrete shuffled frog leaping algorithm

This paper deals with the optimization of composite laminates using discrete shuffled frog leaping method. This approach is used to find optimal values of three design variables including fiber orientations in matrices, thickness of each ply and number of layers in order to minimize the weights and costs of the laminates under various loading cases. Three well-known failure criteria are employed to investigate the capability of the plate in bearing the applied loads. Moreover, the comparison of the obtained results with previously reported results is performed to prove the applicability of the algorithm in optimizing composite materials.     

透明红外硫系薄膜非均匀性检测及影响因素

薄膜非均匀性的无损检测对于制备大面积高质量的红外透明薄膜尤为重要。针对红外薄膜光学均匀性难以获取的困难,提出了一种同时获得单层透明红外薄膜厚度和折射率均匀性的无损检测方法。实验上,通过磁控溅射法在二氧化硅衬底上制备了厚度约1.4μm红外透明Ge-Sb-Se硫系薄膜,然后在该薄膜上标定出36个80μm×80μm区域,利用显微傅里叶红外光谱仪测得该36个区域的透射谱,通过分段滤波的方法滤除背景噪声,运用改进的Swanepoel方法计算得到了薄膜每一个区域的厚度和折射率,进而精确获得该薄膜的厚度和折射率均匀性,结果表明精度优于0.5%。     

镀金属膜长周期光纤光栅的传感特性

本文基于耦合模理论, 建立了严格的四层金属膜理论模型, 探讨了镀金属膜长周期光纤光栅(Long-period fiber grating, LPFG)的温度、 应变及折射率特性, 以及镀膜参数对镀金属膜长周期光纤光栅光谱特性的影响.仿真结果表明, 长周期光纤光栅表面最优的金属膜厚度将引起表现等离子共振(Surface-plasmon resonance, SPR)特性, 这一特性将使得LPFG 对稳定及折射率都有较高的敏感性, 而对应变影响较小. 理论分析表明, 银膜厚度在0.8-1.2 nm 范围内时, 折射率敏感度达到最大值为42.402 6, 敏感度增加4.5%. 仿真结果为镀膜长周期光纤光栅的设计及参数优化提供了理论指导.