Papers by Author: Michele Meo

Abstract: Composite materials structures are particularly susceptible to the damages induced by low-velocity impacts that may result in Barely Visible Impact Damages (BVIDs), which can hardly be identified through visual inspection. These damages are particularly dangerous, since they can critically reduce the mechanical properties of the impacted structures. In this work, the damage induced in impacted long and short fibre composite specimens has been experimentally evaluated by means of Non-Destructive Technique (NDT) inspections. The damages size and location have been evaluated by means of ultrasonic testing to assess the influence of fibres aspect ratio (long and short fibres), fibres material (carbon and glass), volume fraction, and impact energy for low velocity impacts on composite specimens. Considerations about the failure mechanisms arising as a consequence of the impact event and their interactions have been finally introduced.

Abstract: This research work presents a hierarchical method able to reconstruct the time history of the impact force on a composite wing stringer-skin panel by using the structural responses measured by a set of surface bonded ultrasonic transducers. Time reversal method was used to identify the impact location by the knowledge of structural responses recorded from a set of excitation points arbitrarily chosen on the plane of the structure. Radial basis function interpolation approach was then used to calculate the transfer function at the impact point and reconstruct the impact force history. Experimental results showed the high level of accuracy of the proposed impact force reconstruction method for a number of low-velocity impact sources and energies.

Abstract: This research work presents an in-situ imaging method for the localization of the impact point in complex anisotropic structures with diffuse field conditions, using only one passive transducer. The proposed technique is based on the time reversal approach applied to a number of waveforms stored into a database containing the experimental Green’s function of the medium. The present method exploits the benefits of multiple scattering, mode conversion and boundaries reflections to achieve the focusing of the source with high resolution. The optimal re-focusing of the back propagated wave field at the impact point is accomplished through a “virtual” imaging process, which does not require any iterative algorithms and a priori knowledge of the mechanical properties of the structure. The robustness of the time reversal method is experimentally demonstrated on a stiffened composite panel and the source position can be retrieved with a high level of accuracy (error less than 3%). The simple configuration, minimal processing requirements and computational time (less than 1 sec) make this method a valid alternative to the conventional imaging structural health monitoring systems for the acoustic emission source localization.

Abstract: There has been a growing interest in the use of composites especially in structural application ranging from aerospace to automotive and marine sectors. However, their performances under impact loading represent one of the major concerns as impacts may occur during manufacture, normal operations and maintenance. This paper presents two novel NDT techniques, thermosonics and digital shearography (DISH) to detect and assess barely visible impact damage (BVID) produced on a stiffened composite wing panel by unknown low energy impacts. Thermosonics is based on synchronized infrared imaging and ultrasonic excitation. Despite the apparent simplicity of the experimental setup, thermosonics involves a number of factors, e.g. acoustic horn location, horn crack proximity, horn-sample coupling etc., that significantly tend to influence both the degree and the period of the excitation. Then, a numerical-experimental procedure for the assessment of the size and depth of delamination by digital shearography (DISH) is proposed. The flaw detection capabilities of DISH have been evaluated by measuring the dynamic response of the delaminated area to applied stresses. The shearographic methodology is based on the recognition of the (0 1) resonance mode per defect. A simplified model of thin circular plate, idealized above each impacted area, is used to calculate the natural frequency of vibrating delamination. The numerical difference between experimental resonance frequencies and those computationally obtained is minimized using an unconstrained optimization algorithm in order to calculate the delamination depth. The results showed that thermosonics is a quick and effective method to detect and localize BVID damage while the combined shearography and optimization methodology was able to size and localize delamination due to low velocity impacts.

Abstract: The objective of this work was to demonstrate the feasibility of nonlinear vibration/acoustic/ultrasonic diagnostic tools to be implemented in a structural health monitoring system for imaging damage. In particular, the sensitivity a second harmonic imaging technique (SHIT) based on material nonlinear elastic effect known as second harmonic generation (SHG) was investigated. Examples of the capability and limitations of the proposed damage detection process to detect and image barely visible impact damage (BVID) due to low velocity impact (<12J) are presented for various composite laminated. The presence of microcracks, debonding, delamination, etc… could induce the material to behave in a nonlinear elastic fashion and it is highlighted by the presence and amplitude of harmonics in the spectrum of the received signal. The results showed that the proposed SNIT methods appear to be highly accurate in assessing the presence and magnitude of damage with very promising future NDT and structural health monitoring applications. Moreover the technique was validated with two conventional NDT techniques: pulse thermography and thermosonic. The first failed in detecting the damage on the impact face, but delamination on back surface was localized. The second technique was capable of localising and quantifying the damage on the impacted surface agreeing well the results obtained using non linear method.