A study on ultrasonic evaluation of material defects in carbon/carbon composites

It is desirable to perform nondestructive evaluation to assess material properties and part homogeneity because manufacturing of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites requires complicated and costly processes. In this work several ultrasonic techniques were applied to carbon/carbon composites for the evaluation of spatial variations in material properties that are attributable to the manufacturing process. In a large carbon/carbon composite manufactured by chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) method, the spatial variation of ultrasonic velocity was measured and found to be consistent with the densification behavior in CVI process in order to increase the density of C/C composites. Ultrasonic velocity and attenuation depend on a density variation of materials. Low frequency through-transmission scans based on both amplitude and time-of-flight of the ultrasonic pulse were used for mapping out the material property inhomogeneity. These results were compared with that obtained by dry-coupling ultrasonics. Pulse-echo C-scans was used to image near-surface material property anomalies such as the placement of spacers between disks during CVI. Also, optical micrograph had been examined on the surface of C/C composites using a destructive way.     

Matching pursuit for decomposition and approximation of ultrasonic pulse-echo wavelet and its application in ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation

The estimation of the time of arrival (TOA) and/or time of flight of the ultrasonic echoes is essential in ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation. In this paper, matching pursuit method has been used to analyze noisy ultrasonic pulse-echo wavelet and decompose the noisy pulse-echo wavelet into unit-norm vectors. The error ratio of the mean square is used to monitor the acceptability of the unit-norm vector obtained by the matching pursuit performance. A matched filter can be designed by using the time reversal of the approximation pulse-echo wavelet obtained by the reconstruction result with several large coefficient decomposed unit-norm vectors. After performing the matched filter, the part of the signal related to the electrical noise will be removed leaving only the correlated portion of the ultrasonic echoes. Then no initial phase have been contained in the processed ultrasonic echoes. Therefore, the TOA can be estimated directly from the peaks of the representation of the processed signal. Numerical simulations and experimental results make evidence the good performance of the proposed approach which has good effect of noise suppression and results in much improved accuracy in the estimation of echo arrival time.     

An H∞ deconvolution filter and its application to ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation of materials

Deconvolution can be a valuable technique for interpreting results of ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) tests of materials. This is especially true for state of the art hybrid materials. In this paper, a new H_∞ deconvolution filter is presented. The filter is applied to typical ultrasonic NDE data, including through-transmission data for aluminum and composite samples. The results are compared to those obtained from a Wiener deconvolution filter. The performance of the H_∞ filter is as good or better than the performance of the Wiener filter.     

A study of ultrasonic vibration cutting of carbon fibre reinforced plastics

In the use of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) it is often necessary to cut the components, but cutting CFRP is often made difficult by delamination of the composites and by the short tool life. In this paper, the machinability of CFRP by means of ultrasonic vibration cutting was experimentally investigated. The experimental results have led to a trial application of ultrasonic vibration cutting, which has been verified experimentally to be highly effective in view of cutting force and surface quality.     

超声波无损探伤的控制系统设计

热等静压机中高压无缝钢管是整个静压机中相对重要的部件,因此高压无缝钢管的质量相对重要.提出了一种对高压无缝钢管做超声波无损自动检测的方法,完成了整个系统的设计.系统可对直管进行自动连续和点动探伤检测,对弯管手动检测;并可实现存储多种规格钢管的探伤工艺和标准,自动记录探伤结果以及检测报告打印.设计能满足工厂对无缝钢管检测的需求,并为工厂建立了无缝钢管检测实验中心.     

An automated system for ultrasonic testing of disks

The design and functions of separate units of an automated system for ultrasonic testing of disks in aircraft industry are briefly described. The testing results are presented in the form of a defectogram     

A study on ultrasonic test for evaluation of spot weldability in automotive materials

The evaluation of spot weldability is very important in managing the quality of products and also in increasing the credibility in the automotive manufacturing processes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the applicability of ultrasonic techniques for the evaluation of weldability in spot weldment. Through test results, it is confirmed that the behavior of the average attenuation coefficient (α _avg) shows a close relationship with the behavior of tensile-shear strength. The transit time of the ultrasonic pulse echo and nugget size also show a close interrelation. If a larger experimental database with various welding conditions can he collected, then it can he shown that the attenuation coefficient and the transit time of an ultrasonic wave can be effective parameters in the evaluation of spot weldability.     

超声检测机械手控制系统的设计

为实现超声检测的自动化,研制了一种关节机械手控制系统.该机械手由传感检测系统、伺服系统、总线智能节点和PC机等组成,借助单片机、数字控制、现场总线、计算机、机器人等技术,利用CAN现场总线进行通讯,通过控制实现自动控制并实时获取坐标信息,有利于缺陷的定位分析,其结构简单,性能价格比高,可应用于其他场合,具有广泛的适应性.     

Nonlinear ultrasonic techniques for nondestructive assessment of micro damage in material: A review

The nondestructive assessment of the damage that occurs in components during service plays a key role for condition monitoring and residual life estimation of in-service components/structures. Ultrasound has been widely utilized for this; however most of these conventional methods using ultrasonic characteristics in the linear elastic region are only sensitive to gross defects but much less sensitive to micro-damage. Recently, the nonlinear ultrasonic technique, which uses nonlinear ultrasonic behavior such as higher-harmonic generation, subharmonic generation, nonlinear resonance, or mixed frequency response, has been studied as a positive method for overcoming this limitation. In this paper, overall progress in this technique is reviewed with the brief introduction of basic principle in the application of each nonlinear ultrasonic phenomenon.     

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.     

Monitoring unidirectional carbon/carbon composite processing by light microscopy

Unidirectional carbon/carbon composites were prepared using polyacrylonitrile-based carbon fibres and a commercial coal-tar pitch. The preparation includes a three-sequential-step process: (i) prepreging, (ii) moulding/pressing, and (iii) carbonization to 1000 °C. The effect of the process parameters including pressure, mould characteristics, and temperature and duration of pressure application on the microstructure of composites was monitored by light microscopy. Results show that the application of a pressure of 1 MPa close to the temperature of pitch solidification produces lower porosity composites. This porosity is significantly reduced when the solidification of the pitch is tempered by the introduction of a soak time of 10 h at the temperature at which pressure is applied.     

碳复合材料钻孔加工性研究

从刀具材料，几何角度，切削用量等几个方面分析了碳复合材料钻孔工艺性和表面质量，给出了改善复合材料钻孔质量的工艺参数。     

Adaptive instruments for ultrasonic nondestructive testing of large objects with complex structures

An ultrasonic multifunctional adaptive measuring complex, which is built on the basis of a personal computer and algorithmically generates various simple and complexly modulated probing signals, is described. This system implements various radio-engineering algorithms for processing echo signals (storage, optimal filtering, synchronous detection, etc.) and provides adaptation of the signal parameters to the characteristics of inspected objects. Using the example of a frequency-modulated signal, it is shown that an adaptive measuring complex can increase the testing reliability and provide high sensitivity and high resolution owing to both the adaptive adjustment of the parameters of a probing signal and the compensation for distortions in the received signal in the electroacoustic path.     

Sparsity enhancement for blind deconvolution of ultrasonic signals in nondestructive testing application

The received signal in ultrasonic pulse-echo inspection can be modeled as a convolution between an impulse response and the reflection sequence, which is the impulse characteristic of the inspected object. Deconvolution aims at approximately inverting this process to improve the time resolution so that the overlap between echoes from closely spaced reflectors becomes small. This paper presents a modified minimum entropy blind deconvolution algorithm for deconvolving ultrasonic signals. Enhancement of the resolution is achieved by using the presented method. In addition, the presented approach will, in many cases, lead to a faster computation. A nonlinear function is the key point to the efficiency of the modified blind deconvolution algorithm, which is used to increase the sparsity of the iteration output and to decrease the influence of the added noise by replacing each iteration output by output of the nonlinear function. Simulations showed the efficiency of the modification as compared with minimum entropy deconvolution when deconvolving synthetic ultrasonic signals. Experimental results using real ultrasonic data evaluated further that the exact solution consistently yields good performance. The thickness of a thin steel sample can be calculated by the modified blind deconvolution filter with a reasonable accuracy.     

A study of ultrasonic propagation for ultrasonic flow rate measurement

For the purpose of accurate flow measurement, an automatic three-dimensional (3D) sound field measurement system has been developed, and an experimental study has been conducted on ultrasonic properties. By using this system, ultrasonic sound pressure distributions and radiation angles in water have been measured. According to Snell’s law, the ultrasonic transmission properties can be obtained on the basis of incidence angle, acoustic impedance, basic frequency of ultrasound, and material and thickness of the metallic plate. However, this law cannot be applied to certain cases where an ultrasonic incident wave passes through a metallic plate and turns into a longitudinal wave, a shear wave and a Lamb wave. Consequently, the ultrasonic propagation paths have been investigated experimentally at various angles of incidence. From the experiments, it was confirmed that the ultrasonic beam paths change with incidence angles. Hence, the most suitable incidence angle has been determined from the result of measurements. Velocity measurements using an ultrasonic velocity profiler were made at various incidence angles. The accuracy of measuring flow rates changed with the incidence angles. The optimal incidence angle determined from 3D field measurements was found to yield the most accurate flow rates.     

Friction and wear scar analysis of carbon nanofiber-reinforced polymeric composite coatings on alumina/aluminum composite

Alumina/aluminum based composites with excellent physical and mechanical properties offer great potential for lightweight, wear resistant, and high temperature applications. The objective of the present research was to investigate a suitable coating material to provide a low coefficient of friction (COF) during sliding contact. The friction behavior of carbon nanofiber-reinforced aerospace polymer coatings prepared by the spin coating technique were investigated. Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), bis A polycarbonate, and two biphenyl endcapped poly(arylene ether phosphine oxide) compositions, namely BPETPP-E and 6FETPP-E, were used as the matrices. Pin-on-disc experiments were performed between 440C stainless steel balls and disc samples of coated alumina/aluminum interpenetrating phase composites at 0.2 m/s sliding velocity, in air, at room temperature under 0.25 and 0.74 N normal load. In all cases, formation of a lubricious carbon layer and its transfer to the steel counterface was observed to result in lower COF (∼0.2–0.3). Higher levels of fiber content (40 and 60 wt.% fibers) contributed to a faster formation of this layer. Wear scar analysis showed the dual roles of the carbon nanofibers, serving as solid lubricants and as reinforcement in the coatings. The amount of debris generated and the coverage of the lubricious carbon-rich film on the scar surface was dependent on the matrix material used. Adherent and uniform coverage of a lubricious carbon-rich film at the wear contact with the least amount of debris fragments was obtained only for composite coatings using BPETPP-E and 6FETPP-E matrices.     

A study on the merging position of frozen layers in injection-molded disks and rectangular plates

Thermal and flow simulations of center-gated disks and rectangular plates molded under different process conditions are presented. The process variables were melt temperature, mold temperature, injection speed and packing pressures which have been varied systematically. The input pressure data were taken from the experimental traces, if possible. In particular, we have focused on the effect of process conditions on the growth of, so called, a fronzen layer We found that the frozen layer started to merge at about 0.75 ^R from the center for the center-gated disks and about 0.25–0.35^L from the gate for the rectangular plates for most of process conditions. The present result would help to understand the mechanism how the packing process affects the limited portion in overpacked injection-molded parts.     

陶瓷球超声振动研磨装置的研究

为提高陶瓷球研磨加工效率,提出了一种新的研磨方法,即超声振动研磨法,与传统研磨法相比具有较高的效率,阐述了陶瓷球超声振动研磨装置的设计机理。     

Tribological behavior of fast-carbonized PAN/phenolic-based carbon/carbon composite and method for improving same

One purpose of the present study is to evaluate the tribological behavior of a fast-carbonized (1000 °C/min) C/C composite. One other purpose of the study is to enhance the tribological performance of the composite by applying a post-treatment comprising re-impregnation of a carbonaceous additive-doped liquid precursor. The results indicate that average coefficient of friction (COF) values of non-post-treated composites prepared with three different carbonization rates (1, 100 and 1000 °C/min) are similar (0.40-0.45). The average wear rate of samples carbonized at 1000 °C/min is about twice as large as samples carbonized at 1 and 100 °C/min. Great majority of the samples demonstrate an increase in density and a decrease in porosity after the post-treatment. Pitch-group samples generally have larger changes in density and porosity than furan-group samples. After the post-treatment, all samples demonstrate decreases in both COF and specific wear rate coefficient. Pitch-group samples generally exhibit lower wear rate than furan-group samples. Samples post-treated with pitch/carbon black and pitch/mesophase pitch demonstrate the lowest wear rates among all samples tested (only half that of untreated samples carbonized at 1 °C/min), while still maintaining relatively high COF values (close to 0.4). These results indicate that an appropriate post-treatment, especially a pitch treatment, may dramatically improve the tribological performance of fast-carbonized C/C composite.