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Physics Procedia 00 (2009) 000–000
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
International Congress on Ultrasonics, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, January 2009
Air- coupled ultrasonic testing of CFRP rods by means of guided
waves
Rymantas Kažys*, Renaldas Raišutis, Egidijus Žukauskas, Liudas Mažeika, Alfonsas
Vladišauskas
Kaunas University of Technology, Ultrasound Institute, Studentǐ.50, LT-51368 Kaunas, Lithuania
Elsevier use only: Received date here; revised date here; accepted date here
Abstract
One of the most important parts of the gliders is a lightweight longeron reinforcement made of carbon fibre reinforced plastics
(CFRP) rods. These small diameter (a few millimetres) rods during manufacturing are glued together in epoxy filled matrix in
order to build the arbitrary spar profile. However, the defects presenting in the rods such as brake of fibres, lack of bonding,
reduction of density affect essentially the strength of the construction and are very complicated in repairing. Therefore,
appropriate non-destructive testing techniques of carbon fibber rods should be applied before gluing them together.
The objective of the presented work was development of NDT technique of CFRP rods used for aerospace applications, which is
based on air- coupled excitation/reception of guided waves.
The regularities of ultrasonic guided waves propagating in both circular and rectangular cross-section CFRP rods immersed into
water were investigated and it was shown that the guided waves propagating along sample of the rod create leaky waves which
are radiated into a surrounding medium. The ultrasonic receiver scanned over the rod enables to pick-up the leaky waves and to
determine the non-uniformities of propagation caused by the defects.
Theoretical investigations were carried out by means of numerical simulations based on a 2D and 3D finite differences method.
By modelling and experimental investigations it was demonstrated that presence of any type of the defect disturbs the leaky wave
and enables to detect them. So, the spatial position of defects can be determined also. It was shown that such important defects as
a disbond of the plies essentially reduce or even completely suppress the leaky wave, so they can be detected quit easily.
PACS: 43.20 Mv; 43.35.Yb; 43.35.Zc; 43.60.Qv
Keywords: Air-coupled ultrasonic testing, CFRP rod; guided ultrasonic waves; ultrasonic non-destructive testing
1. Introduction
The novel type structures in aerospace industry, such as lightweight longeron reinforcements for gliders, motor-
gliders, planes, and those in water transport sector for boats, yachts and prototype autos are made using carbon fibre
reinforced plastic rods. Each rod consists of bucket of carbon fibres plies having diameter close to a few microns
and are glued together in a monolithic cylindrical-shape or square-shape bar structure. The typical diameter of a
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +370-37-351162; fax: +370-37-451489.
E-mail address: rymantas.kazys@ktu.lt.
Physics Procedia 3 (2010) 185–192
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia
doi:10.1016/j.phpro.2010.01.026
Kažys/ Physics Procedia 00 (2010) 000–000
circular-shape rod is 3 mm and lateral dimensions of a square-shape rod are 3 mm x 3 mm. Further, such small
lateral dimension rods are glued into an epoxy filled matrix in order to build the arbitrary spar profile. Such
structures may be used for suspension units and highway bridges as well. The most common material for structures
like spars and I-beams is Graphlite SM315 composite. Such material is more than six times stronger than
aluminium, twice as stiff and nearly half its weight [1], [2].
The Graphlite is a very special material due to its properties, such as lightness, flexibility, strength and resistance
to corrosion. It can be used also as a prepreg material or standalone. The cross-section of a glider longeron, which is
reinforced using glued together CFRP circular-shape rods, is presented in Fig.1 a. However, due to a bad quality of
gluing or lack of epoxy between neighbouring fibres, delamination type defects can occur. As a result, the non-glued
regions in CFRP rods are very sensitive to mechanical loads, external forces and deformations. The other types of
defects are brake of fibres, reduction of density and etc. Therefore, the stiffness and fail-safety of the whole structure
that is reinforced using such rods depend on quality of separate rods. Appropriate non-destructive testing techniques
of CFRP rods should be applied before gluing them together, because repairing process is very complicated. Photos
of defect-free and defective CFRP circular-shape rods to be checked are presented in Fig.1 b and c.
The most promising testing technique, in principle enabling inspection of relatively long cylindrical components
(length close to 10 m or more), is a long range ultrasonic technique based on exploitation of low frequency guided
waves. Such waves may propagate long distances in planar and tubular structures and have already been used for
inspection of pipes. The principles and advantages of guided wave application to inspection of pipes or tubular
structures have been presented by Cawley et.al. [3], [4] and Pei et. al. [5].
The aim of the presented work was development and investigation of NDT technique of CFRP rods used for
aerospace applications, which is based on air - coupled excitation/reception of guided waves.
Fig.1 The CFRP rods glued together in epoxy filled matrix: a) Cross-
section of the glider longeron, made of glued into a matrix circular-
shape CFRP rods, b) defect-free CFRP rod, c) the defective CFRP
rod.
Fig.2 Phase velocities of the guided wave modes propagating in
rectangular-shape CFRP rod, calculated using semi-analytic finite
element method.
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2. Regularities of the guided waves propagation in rods
2.1. Selection of an appropriate wave mode
The multi-mode propagation of the guided waves in a cylindrical-shape or square shape waveguide, like a CFRP
rod, occurs. The effective exploitation of the guided waves requires selecting of an appropriate value of operating
frequency.
In order to determine guided wave modes propagating in CFRP rod the modelling was carried out by us using
semi - analytical finite element method presented in [6], [7]. The acoustic properties of the CFRP material used in
the modelling were defined by the matrix of elastic coefficients and of course the anisotropy was taken into account.
The length of the CFRP rod has been assumed to be infinite and the surrounding medium has been assumed to be
vacuum. The obtained dispersion curves of main propagating modes in the rectangular shaped CFRP rod are shown
in Fig.2. As it can be seen in the frequency range up to 0.5 MHz there are three lowest order modes of propagating
guided waves: axially symmetric (S
0
), torsional (S
T
) and asymmetric (A
0
).
In order to investigate the regularities of interaction of guided waves with the defects at first the immersion
technique was used. The highest phase velocity, a relatively small dispersion and the possibility of excitation using a
longitudinal mode ultrasonic transducer attached to the edge of the rod makes the axially symmetric longitudinal
wave mode (S
0
) most suitable for investigation of CFRP rods using the immersion technique. The receiver scanned
over the rod should enable to pick up the leaky guided wave signals and to determine whether the parameters of
wave modes propagating in the rod will be affected by presence of defects.
In the second step the possibility of air-coupled non-contact excitation and reception of the guided waves were
investigated. However, excitation of the S
0
mode is not efficient, as will be shown later in the case of air-coupled
technique, so the asymmetric mode A
0
was used.
2.2. Investigation of the influence of the defect on the propagating guided waves using finite difference model
In order to investigate interaction of the ultrasonic guided waves with delamination type defect (lack of epoxy
glue) in a CFRP rod, 3D simulation using Wave3000Pro software package has been carried out. The Wave3000Pro
software is based on a finite difference method and evaluates the displacement vector at each discrete point of the
object to be analysed. The specific visco-elastic wave equation that is simulated in such package is given by [8], [9]:
w
w
grad
3
2
2
2
xu
¸
¹
·
¨
©
§
¸
¹
·
¨
©
§
¸
¸
¹
·
¨
¨
©
§
dt
d
dt
d
w
dt
d
dt
d
K
MPOKPU
(1)
whereby
U
is the density (kg/m
3
) of the material,
O
is the first Lame constant (N/m
2
),
P
is the second Lame
constant (N/m),
K
is the shear viscosity ( Ns/m
2
),
M
is the bulk viscosity ( Ns/m
2
), grad denotes the gradient operator,
is the divergence operator, t is time (s) and w the displacement vector in 3D Cartesian space, respectively. The
displacement vector is a function of coordinates (x, y, z) and time t.
Graphical representation of the model of the defective CFRP rod and numerical model set up is presented in
Fig.3. The model simulates a 3 mm diameter and 100 mm length CFRP rod with delamination type defect (lack of
epoxy glue), such as multiple internal disbonds between neighbouring fibres. The delamination type defect has been
modelled like a set of thin CFRP fibres surrounded by air gaps. The mean overall length of the delamination region
along x axis was 20 mm. The lengths of the air gaps along x axis have been used different, approximately in ±1 mm
away from the mean overall length of the delamination region in order to mimic random distribution of the
delaminations between neighbouring fibres. The surrounding medium of the test sample was water. The cross -
section of the modelled region of a delamination type defect in x0y plane is shown in Fig.4.
For excitation of the axially symmetric longitudinal mode L(0,1) of the ultrasonic guided wave, a disk shape
virtual ultrasonic transmitter of 3 mm diameter and contacting with the edge of the test sample has been used in the
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model. The ultrasonic transmitter has been excited by three period burst with the Gaussian envelope and 400 kHz
frequency.
Fig.3 The set up of the 3D numerical model for investigation of
ultrasonic waves propagation in the defective CFRP rod.
Fig.4 Graphical representation of the cross-section
of the simulated delamination type defect (air gaps
between carbon fibres) in circular-shape CFRP rod.
In order to detect the ultrasonic waves and to collect measurement signals, 22 virtual receivers positioned along
the sample surface have been used. The distance between edges of the virtual receivers has been 4 mm. The distance
between the surfaces of the virtual receivers and the test sample has been 0.5 mm.
Fig.5 Numerically simulated displacement fields (3D case) at different time instants in circular-shape CFRP rod, where L
0
is the leaky wave
which is generated by the direct axially symmetric longitudinal mode L(0,1): a) 4 µs (before defect), b) 8 µs (interaction with defect), c) 13 µs
(behind defect).
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The snapshots of displacement fields in plane along rod axis at different time instances are presented in Fig.5. A
few cross-sections of displacement fields, corresponding at non-defective and defective regions are given also.
The simulation results show that in the CFRP composite rod the longitudinal guided wave L(0,1) mode is
generated efficiently when the edge type excitation is used. Such mode propagates along test sample away from the
excitation zone and causes generation of the leaky waves L
0
into the surrounding water (Fig.5 a). At the front edge
of the defective region, transformation of the L(0,1) guided wave mode occurs. In this region ultrasonic wave
propagates along CFRP plies without leakage into the water (Fig.5 b). Behind the defect and also along the non-
defected region of test sample the L(0,1) guided wave mode propagates again and causes radiation of the leaky wave
L
0
into surrounding liquid (Fig.5 c).
The real mechanism of the interaction of the propagating wave mode with the defect of course is more
complicated and can be interpreted in different ways, however the reconstructed B-scan image (Fig.6) obtained from
the simulated signals demonstrates a strong reduction of the amplitude of the leaky waves over the defect and the
defective region of the CFRP test sample is clearly seen.
Fig.6 Numerically simulated B – scan image of the defective cylindrical-shape CFRP rod.
3. Experimental verification of modelling results
3.1. Immersion testing
The objective of this part of experimental investigations was verification of the modelling results, obtained by the
finite difference model. For estimation of amplitudes of the leaky waves generated by propagating in the rod the
symmetric mode of guided wave the immersion experiments have been carried out. The experimental set-up is
presented in Fig. 7 a.
The experiments have been carried out using an ultrasonic measurement and transducer positioning system,
which have been developed at the Ultrasound Institute, Kaunas University of Technology. The transmitting,
thickness mode ultrasonic transducer (f=400 kHz) has been mounted on the edge of the circular-shape CFRP rod and
the receiving ultrasonic transducer has been scanned over the surface of the sample. The excitation pulse frequency
was 400 kHz, the number of the rectangular burst cycles was 3. The transmitting transducer was mounted on the
edge of the rod by a quick-setting epoxy glue. Such a transducer excites the symmetric L(0,1) mode propagating
along the CFRP rod. The excitation voltage of the ultrasonic transmitter was 200 V and the gain of the ultrasonic
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receiver was 37 dB. The receiving ultrasonic transducer has been placed at the 5 mm distance above the surface of
the CFRP rod and scanned with the 1mm step.
The circular shape CFRP rod sample, with an artificial delamination type defect, was investigated. The artificial
delamination type defect was made in selected region of CFRP sample by fixed force impacts (1.5 J) around the
sample at each 30°.
The length of the artificially made delamination region has been 50 mm. In this case, during impacts the
delaminations occurred between neighbouring fibres due to broken epoxy glue interconnections. The measured B-
scan and C-scan images of the defective CFRP rod are presented in Fig.7 b, c. The results indicate the presence of
leaky wave inside water due to direct wave propagation along fibres of the CFRP rods. Over the defective regions
leaky waves are completely suppressed. In Fig.7 b the leaky waves due to reflections from edges of the CFRP rod of
finite length are clearly seen. The parasitic wave generated by the edges of the transmitting transducer and radiated
into water can be observed also.
In practise, for effective implementation of the proposed technique for on-line testing of CFRP rods during
manufacturing it is necessary to use a more advanced ultrasonic technique for non-contact generation of appropriate
mode of the guided waves.
Fig.7 Inspection of CFRP rods using immersion technique: a)
experimental set-up, b) B-scan image, c) C-scan image.
Fig.8 The air-coupled ultrasonic investigation of the presence of
delamination type defects in the rectangular-shape CFRP rod: a)
the structural diagram of the used technique, b) photo of the
experimental set-up.
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3.2. Air-coupled testing
The demand of the effective on-line quality control requires non-contact and coupling liquid free generation and
reception of the guided waves. Therefore, the air-coupled technique has been selected by us as the promising one.
The experiments have been carried out using an ultrasonic measurement and transducer positioning system, which
was developed at the Ultrasound Institute, Kaunas University of Technology. The structural diagram of the used air-
coupled ultrasonic technique for NDT inspection of the rectangular-shape CFRP rod is presented in Fig.8 a. Only
one-side access to the sample surface was used. The pair of air-coupled transducers (f=500 kHz) was used for non-
contact scanning of the rectangular-shape CFRP sample (Fig.8 b).
The ultrasonic transducers were mounted into pitch-catch configuration for generation and reception of
asymmetric mode of guided ultrasonic waves. Positioning of the ultrasonic transducers over the test sample has been
performed by a precise mechanical scanner. The transmitter was driven by the 5 periods and 750 V amplitude radio
pulse.
The transmitting and the receiving ultrasonic transducers were scanned over surface of the test sample with a
scanning step of 1 mm. The total gain of the measurement system was 87 dB. In order to increase signal to noise
level at each scanning position the 64 signals have been recorded and averaged. Using the described experimental
set-up the lowest order asymmetric mode of the guided waves was generated. The excitation and the reception
angles of the air-coupled ultrasonic transducers were adjusted in order to achieve the maximum amplitude of
asymmetric mode, transmitted through CFRP rod (Fig.9). The estimated value of the optimal inclination angle of the
ultrasonic transducers was 9.2°.
The delamination type defect in the rectangular – shaped rod was made in a similar way as in the cylindrical rod.
The length of the artificially made delamination region was 50 mm also. The measured B-scan image of the
defective rectangular – shaped CFRP rod measured using the air-coupled technique is presented in Fig.10. In the
presented results a strong reduction of the amplitude of the leaky wave over the defect can be observed. So, the air-
coupled experiments demonstrate the same regularities of guided wave interaction with the defect as in the
experiments carried out using immersion technique.
Fig.9 The amplitude of the received asymmetric mode signal
versus the excitation/reception angle.
Fig.10 The measured B-scan image of the defective rectangular-
shape CFRP rod with an artificial delamination type defect.
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4. Conclusions
It was shown that for NDT of highly anisotropic small lateral dimensions CFRP rods ultrasonic guided waves
may be very efficiently exploited. By the numerical modelling it was shown that in the frequency range up to
0.5MHz at least 3 guided waves modes propagates: axially symmetric (S
0
), torsional (S
T
) and asymmetric (A
0
).
It was demonstrated that the guided waves propagating in CFRP rods create leaky waves in a surrounding
medium, amplitude of which is essentially reduced over delaminations or defective areas.
Exploiting the found regularities the ultrasonic air-coupled testing technique for inspection of CFRP rods based
on generation of asymmetric guided waves in the rods and reception of leaky waves has been developed.
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