Characterisation of carbon fibre-reinforced polymer composites through radon-transform analysis of complex eddy-current data

Robert R Hughes*, Bruce Drinkwater, Robert Smith

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

50 Citations (Scopus)
727 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Maintaining the correct fibre orientations and stacking sequence in carbon-fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) during manufacture is essential for achieving the required mechanical properties of a component. This paper presents and evaluates a method for the rapid characterisation of the fibre orientations present in CFRP structures, and the differentiation of different stacking sequences, through the Radon-transform analysis of complex-valued eddy-current testing (ECT) inspection data. A high-frequency (20 MHz) eddy-current inspection system was used to obtain 2D scans of a range of CFRP samples of differing ply stacking sequences. The complex electrical impedance scan data was analysed using Radon-transform techniques to quickly and simply determine the dominant fibre orientations present in the structure. This method is compared to 2D-fast Fourier transform (2D-FFT) analysis of the same data and shown to give superior quantitative results with comparatively fewer computational steps and corrections. Further analysis is presented demonstrating and examining a method for preserving the complex information inherent within the eddy-current scan data during Radon-transform analysis. This investigation shows that the real and imaginary components of the ECT data encode information about the sacking sequence allowing the distinction between composites with different stacking structures. This new analysis technique could be used for in-process analysis of CFRP structures as a more accurate characterisation method, reducing the chance of costly manufacturing errors.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)252-259
Number of pages8
JournalComposites Part B: Engineering
Volume148
Early online date8 May 2018
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2018

Keywords

  • Carbon fibre
  • In-line monitoring
  • Non-destructive testing
  • Quality control
  • Data analysis
  • Radon transform
  • CFRP
  • Stacking sequence
  • Lay-up

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