Inspection of composite parts produced by additive manufacturing: air-coupled ultrasound and thermography
M A Machado, P L Inácio, R A Santos, A F Gomes, A P Martins, M S Carvalho and T G Santos
Polymeric parts produced by fused deposition modelling (FDM) additive manufacturing (AM) has no special safety requirements and, therefore, NDT is not required. However, the use of AM to produce fibre reinforcement thermoplastics (FRTP) parts means that structural applications with safety requirements are envisaged, demanding reliable NDT methods.
This paper presents experimental results and numerical simulation using the finite element method (FEM) of the NDT inspection of different parts of polymeric and FRTP composite materials. The parts were produced by fused deposition modelling (FDM) additive manufacturing and different delamination defects were introduced at different positions and with different dimensions and morphologies. Two different NDT techniques were used, exploiting different inspection parameters: air-coupled ultrasound, using frequencies between 50 and 400 kHz, and active transient thermography, in both reflection and transition modes. The influence of the curvature of the parts was analysed from an experimental point of view and the results were compared with different numerical simulation strategies.
It was shown that both NDT techniques can detect the defects with good spatial resolution, with the thermography reflection mode being the fastest and most expedient for curvature parts. The numerical simulation corroborates the experimental results, allowing a deeper insight on the physical phenomena involved.
This paper presents experimental results and numerical simulation using the finite element method (FEM) of the NDT inspection of different parts of polymeric and FRTP composite materials. The parts were produced by fused deposition modelling (FDM) additive manufacturing and different delamination defects were introduced at different positions and with different dimensions and morphologies. Two different NDT techniques were used, exploiting different inspection parameters: air-coupled ultrasound, using frequencies between 50 and 400 kHz, and active transient thermography, in both reflection and transition modes. The influence of the curvature of the parts was analysed from an experimental point of view and the results were compared with different numerical simulation strategies.
It was shown that both NDT techniques can detect the defects with good spatial resolution, with the thermography reflection mode being the fastest and most expedient for curvature parts. The numerical simulation corroborates the experimental results, allowing a deeper insight on the physical phenomena involved.
