A New Method for Detecting Internal Defects in Composite Materials Based on Time of Flight

Carbon-fiber reinforced polymer composites have been widely used to achieve the light-weighted design and high performance due to superior performance. Internal defects in the composite materials are the main factors that determine their performance,which makes reliable and effective detection methods of internal defects essential. Nondestructive testing(NDT)methods are the most widely-used way due to their tremendous advantages. Though the theoretical background is found,experimental results could be quite complicated and confusing,especially for composite materials with complex defects characteristics. In this paper,experimental study on internal defects in composite materials based on the time of flight(ToF)are investigated. The Gaussian echo model and the parameter estimation methods are established to build a theoretical model for measurements. Then,the distance amplitude correction(DAC)method is proposed to effectively improve the signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)and to reduce distortion of the signal during measurements. Finally,the ToF is adopted to determine depth of internal defects. Experiment study is conducted to investigate the porosity defects and the anti-impact performance of composite materials,as well as defects in objects with various thicknesses. Experimental results show that the proposed method is quite helpful for obtaining the intuition and deep understanding of internal defects,thus contributing to the determination of product performance and its improvement.

Influence of random shrinkage porosity on equivalent elastic modulus of casting： A statistical and numerical approach

Shrinkage porosity is a type of random distribution defects and exists in most large castings. Different from the periodic symmetry defects or certain distribution defects, shrinkage porosity presents a random "cloud-like" configuration, which brings difficulties in quantifying the effective performance of defected casting. In this paper, the influences of random shrinkage porosity on the equivalent elastic modulus of QT400-18 casting were studied by a numerical statistics approach. An improved random algorithm was applied into the lattice model to simulate the "cloud-like" morphology of shrinkage porosity. Then, a large number of numerical samples containing random levels of shrinkage were generated by the proposed algorithm. The stress concentration factor and equivalent elastic modulus of these numerical samples were calculated. Based on a statistical approach, the effects of shrinkage porosity's distribution characteristics, such as area fraction, shape, and relative location on the casting's equivalent mechanical properties were discussed respectively. It is shown that the approach with randomly distributed defects has better predictive capabilities than traditional methods. The following conclusions can be drawn from the statistical simulations:(1) the effective modulus decreases remarkably if the shrinkage porosity percent is greater than 1.5%;(2) the average Stress Concentration Factor(SCF) produced by shrinkage porosity is about 2.0;(3) the defect's length across the loading direction plays a more important role in the effective modulus than the length along the loading direction;(4) the surface defect perpendicular to loading direction reduces the mean modulus about 1.5% more than a defect of other position.

Practice and numerical simulation of ingot solidification for high-performance homogeneous steel

A 40 t EAF+LF+VD→mold casting 20 t ingot→hot forging and heating process is employed to produce high-performance homogeneous steel.The solidification process of the 20 t ingot for the high-performance homogeneous steel was simulated by ProCAST casting simulation software.The distribution area and degree of segregation or porosity defects in the longitudinal section of the ingot were analyzed.The reason for the defect formation in the large-scale ingot for forging material was determined, which can be used as a guide for production.The results show that controlling the superheat of die casting and adding a riser heating agent improve ingot quality for forging high-performance homogeneous steel and that flaw detection defects are effectively controlled after forging.