Composite Materials: Characterization and Non-Destructive Testing

In Composite Materials: Characterization and Non-Destructive Testing, you'll learn ...

• What is anisotropy and how it affects the properties and the behavior of composite materials
• Manufacturing and forming methods for composite materials
• Types of manufacturing and in-service defects commonly found in composites
• The various types of NDT used for composite materials

Overview

Credit: 2 PDH

Length: 19 pages

Non-destructive testing (NDT) of composite materials can be expected to differ from that of metallic materials because composites differ markedly from metals and their alloys. Composites are highly anisotropic; they exhibit low thermal conductivity, high acoustic attenuation, and poor electrical conductivity. For composite materials, much of the NDT is conducted either during or immediately after manufacture of the component and consists of looking for delaminations, debonds, etc. Subsequently, damage to composites can accrue from impact, environmental effects or from unidirectional or cyclic load application, all of which have different effects on the defects already present or may introduce different types of defect altogether. Most NDT of composites is conducted using radiography or ultrasonic testing.

This course deals firstly with those NDT procedures which are reasonably well established for composite materials and which seek identifiable features believed to be of importance. Developments in additional techniques are then evaluated. Finally, techniques which show promise of development as predictors of failure, e.g. acoustic emission, are examined.