Modelling of ultrasonic beam propagation from an array through transversely isotropic fibre reinforced composites using Multi Gaussian beams

Ultrasonic arrays are used for non-destructive evaluation of structures for aerospace and other applications. With the increase in the usage of fibre-reinforced composites in aerospace structures, this evaluation becomes complex due to the effects of attenuation and reflection from the layer boundaries in composite laminates. Hence there is...

Friction stir weld-bonding defect inspection using phased array ultrasonic testing

Weight reduction is an important driver of the aerospace industry, which encourages the development of lightweight joining techniques to substitute rivet joints. Friction stir welding (FSW) is a solid-state process that enables the production of lighter joints with a small performance reduction compared to the base material properties....

Simulation of ultrasonic beam propagation from phased arrays in anisotropic media using linearly phased multi-Gaussian beams

Phased array ultrasonic testing is widely used to test structures for flaws due to its ability to produce steered and focused beams. The inherent anisotropic nature of some materials, however, leads to skewing and distortion of the phased array beam and consequently measurement errors. To overcome this, a quantitative model of phased array...

Simulation of ultrasonic array inspection of composites with side drilled holes

In this paper we ultrasonic signals from array transducers are simulated using the Thompson and Gray measurement model. The measurement model consists of a beam model, a system efficiency factor which characterizes the response of the electro-mechanical and electrical components of the system, and a flaw scattering model. To inspect layered...

A gaussian beam based recursive stiffness matrix model to simulate ultrasonic array signals from multi-layered media

Ultrasonic testing using arrays is becoming widely used to test composite structures in the Aerospace industry. In recent years, the Full Matrix Capture (FMC) technique has been implemented to extract the signals for post-processing to form an image. The inherent anisotropy and the layering of the structure pose challenges for the...

Modeling and imaging of ultrasonic array inspection of side drilled holes in layered anisotropic media

There has been an increase in the use of ultrasonic arrays for the detection of defects in composite structures used in the aerospace industry. The response of a defect embedded in such a medium is influenced by the inherent anisotropy of the bounding medium and the layering of the bounding medium and hence poses challenges for the...

Modelling of Ultrasonic Array Signals in Anisotropic Media

There has been a steady increase of composites and anisotropic materials in primary aircraft structures over the years. This increase is driven by the high strength to weight ratio of such materials leading to lighter and more efficient aircraft. As the uptake of such materials keeps increasing so does the complexity in geometry and manufacture...