Materials Science Forum Vols. 636-637

Abstract: Results of an experimental investigation of effects of two advanced technologies for materials cutting, namely water-jet and electroerosive cutting, respectively, are described. Water jet cutting, with abrasive particles and specific parameters, and electroerosive cutting were applied to an aircraft Al-alloy sheet Al 2124 T851 of a considerable thickness, namely 50.8 mm. Reference batch of specimens was manufactured using fine finishing milling. Surface quality of each of the cutting and machining technologies was evaluated and fatigue strength was investigated. Three point bend fatigue tests performed at constant stress amplitude showed a considerable deterioration effect of both technologies on fatigue strength. The damaging effect of both technologies was comparable. Fractographical analysis using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed fatigue crack initiation in numerous surface micro-notches occurring as a result of the cutting. In addition, the crack initiation was frequently accelerated by surface or subsurface fairly large particles of intermetallic phases. This mechanism also occurred with milling specimens.

Abstract: Sandwich plates, made of two aluminum layers and a metal honey comb core are used in the aircraft industry. The purpose of this study is to show the ultrasonic guided waves sensibility to discover delamination in skin-honeycomb sandwich structures used in aeronautics. Separation between the skin and the core can appear during the manufacture or after use. In this work, Lamb's waves are used to control this kind of plane structure. Indeed, these waves have the advantage to put in vibration the totality of the plate that we want to control and they propagate on long distances without too much attenuation. The revealing, by the guided waves, of the unsticking which can meet on such sandwiches, between the plate and the honeycomb core is studied and commented.

Abstract: When measuring the ultrasound field, the signal provided by the receiving transducer is affected by its spatial properties. Particularly, the displacement normal to its surface is spatially averaged because of the receiver finite size. In this study, we show using a numerical simulation, the effectiveness of the spatial deconvolution of these effects for a rectangular transducer. For that, three methods allowing the inversion of the aperture effect are tested 1) Wiener’s method; 2) the power spectral equalization (PSE) method, and 3) the maximum a posteriori (MAP) method. The obtained results show that the three methods are able to reconstruct the ultrasound field from the spatially averaged values and the quality of the reconstruction depends strongly upon the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the spatial frequencies of the ultrasound field investigated

Abstract: Optical sensors have hit their maturity and a new kind of systems is being developed. This paper deals with the development of a new sensing structure based on polymeric foils and optic fiber sensors, namely the Fiber Bragg Grating sensors. Sensor integration in polymeric foils, using industrial process is the proposed goal. To achieve this goal, Finite Element Analysis was used for prototype modeling and simulation. The model was subjected to loads and restraints in order to retrieve information about stress distribution and displacement of specific points. From the simulation was possible to predict the sections where the sensor should be positioned. A prototype was then fabricated using industrial processes. Tests indicate that the polymeric foil influence on the sensor performance may exist. However, the prototype was able of transferring the full deformation to the optical sensor. Moreover, the optical sensor, which is incorporated in the polymeric foil, is fully functional with high sensitivity, 0.6 picometer by microstrain, allowing deformation measurements, up to 1.2 millimeter.

Abstract: In this work, the Minimum Entropy Deconvolution (MED) method, developed for ultrasonic signals, is used to address the problem of delamination defect detection in Composite Materials. Standard deconvolution techniques suppose that the wavelet is minimum phase but generally make no assumptions about the amplitude distribution of the primary reflection coefficient sequence. For a white reflection sequence the assumption of a Gaussian distribution means that recovery of the true phase of the wavelet is impossible; however, a non-Gaussian distribution in theory allows recovery of the phase. It is generally recognized that primary reflection coefficients typically have a non-Gaussian amplitude distribution. The minimum entropy deconvolution (MED) method supposes whiteness but seek to exploit the non-Gaussianity. This method do not assume minimum phase. The deconvolution filter is defined by the maximization of a function called the objective. The algorithm is tested on simulated data and also tested on real ultrasonic data from multilayered composite materials.