Ultrasonic NDE of thick composites

Abstract

<p>A series of ultrasonic techniques being developed for the characterization of thick composites are described. Techniques for the in-situ measurements of elastic constants on thick-walled cylinders based on the times of a variety of ultrasonic modes of propagation are first presented, followed by discussion of the determination of the porosity from measurements of the frequency dependence of the attenuation. Two techniques for imaging delamination are then discussed. The first involves inferring size from plots of reflected signal amplitude versus lateral position of the transducer with a model for beam propagation in anisotropic media used to deconvolve the effects of the distant and direction dependent beam width. The second makes use of synthetic aperture techniques.</p>