Search results for "Non-destructive testing"
showing 10 items of 26 documents
Fine Alignment of Thermographic Images for Robotic Inspection of Parts with Complex Geometries
2022
Increasing the efficiency of the quality control phase in industrial production lines through automation is a rapidly growing trend. In non-destructive testing, active thermography techniques are known for their suitability to allow rapid non-contact and full-field inspections. The robotic manipulation of the thermographic instrumentation enables the possibility of performing inspections of large components with complex geometries by collecting multiple thermographic images from optimal positions. The robotisation of the thermographic inspection is highly desirable to improve assessment speed and repeatability without compromising inspection accuracy. Although integrating a robotic setup fo…
Ultrasonic inspection for the detection of debonding in CFRP-reinforced concrete
2017
Fibre-reinforced plastic (FRP) composites are extensively used to retrofit civil structures. However, the quality and the characteristics of the bond between the FRP and the structure are critical to ensure the efficacy of the retrofit. For this reason, effective non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods are often necessary to assess the bonding conditions. This article presents an ultrasonic technique for detecting defects at the FRP-substrate interface. The technique uses the Akaike Information Criterion, to detect automatically the onset of the ultrasonic signals, and the novel Equivalent Time Lenght (ETL) parameter, to quantify the energy of the propagating ultrasonic signals along the i…
Laser ultrasonics for defect evaluation on coated railway axles
2020
Abstract This scientific paper focuses on the application of an advanced non-destructive technique for an effective inspection of railway axles. The method pertains to ultrasonic techniques, which are widely used in the railway field. The experimental investigation was carried out on simulated defects tooled near the cross section reduction of the axle, in order to simulate fatigue cracks which, due to notch effect, can trigger crack propagation and axle failure. The aim of this research activity is to evaluate how efficiently the proposed technique detects defects and to verify its applicability to axles with a black coating for protection. In view of the experimental setup, comprising a p…
In-process calibration of a non-destructive testing system used for in-process inspection of multi-pass welding
2020
Abstract In multi-pass welding, there is increasing motivation to move towards in-process defect detection to enable real-time repair; thus avoiding deposition of more layers over a defective weld pass. All defect detection techniques require a consistent and repeatable approach to calibration to ensure that measured defect sizing is accurate. Conventional approaches to calibration employ fixed test blocks with known defect sizes, however, this methodology can lead to incorrect sizing when considering complex geometries, materials with challenging microstructure, and the significant thermal gradients present in materials during the inter-pass inspection period. To circumvent these challenge…
A numerical and experimental study through laser thermography for defect detection on metal additive manufactured parts
2017
Additive manufacturing has been recently employed in industrial sectors with the fundamental requirement for zero defect parts. Technological developments in additive manufacturing notwithstanding, there continues to be a scarcity of non-destructive inspection techniques to be exploited during the manufacturing process itself, thus limiting industrial advancements and extensive applications. Therefore, being able to integrate the defect inspection phase within the additive manufacturing process would open the way to enabling corrective actions on the component in itinere, that is, before reaching the final product. For this reason, new methods of in-process monitoring are gaining more and m…
Detection and characterisation of disbonds on Fibre Metal Laminate hybrid composites by flying laser spot thermography
2017
Abstract In this work a novel data collection and processing is proposed for the Infrared Non-Destructive Testing (IR-NDT) of interlaminar disbonds on Fibre Metal Laminate (FML) hybrid composites. The adopted active IR-NDT scheme uses a pointwise laser heat source that is moved along a raster scanning trajectory over the object surface. A Focal Plane Array IR camera is employed to acquire the thermal field generated by the moving heat source. Disbonds defect signatures are then searched by analysing the perturbations of the temperature distribution over a reference area following the heat source. The proposed methodology has been implemented on a GLARE sample, since this class of FMLs has g…
A Numerical Study on Interlaminar Defects Characterization in Fibre Metal Laminates with Flying Laser Spot Thermography
2018
This work describes a numerical study on non-destructive evaluation of interlayer disbond defects in aerospace grade Fibre Metal Laminate sheets (FMLs). A recently proposed infrared non-destructive testing setup is considered, where a continuous laser is moved over the material surface, while the thermal footprint of the moving heat source is acquired, e.g. by an infrared thermal camera. Interlayer disbonds are then detected by analysing the features of the acquired thermograms. The experimental feasibility of this approach has been recently proved. The present work proposes a numerical simulation of the NDT approach, where the material thermal response is analysed and correlated to defects…
Multiscale microstructural characterization of particulate-reinforced composite with non-destructive X-ray micro- and nanotomography
2018
Abstract Methods based on X-ray tomography are developed to study the relevant statistical quantities describing the microstructural inhomogeneity of particulate reinforced composites. The developed methods are applied in estimating microstructural inhomogeneity parameters of composites containing metallic glass particles in metal matrix, extruded in varying pressure loads. This study indicates that the critical characteristics with regard to the effect of particle clustering are cluster size and shape, local volume fraction of particles in the cluster and the distance between clusters. The results demonstrate that the spatial distribution of reinforcement is very uneven and the amount of p…
FRP-Substrate bonding quality investigation making use of ultrasonic waves
2016
Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite systems are widely used to repair structurally deficient constructions thanks to their good immunity to corrosion, low weight and excellent mechanical properties. The quality of the FRP-substrate interface bond is a crucial parameter affecting the performance of retrofitted structures. In this framework, ultrasonic testing could be used to assess the quality of the bonding [1-2]. In the case of FRP laminates adhesively bonded to roughly inhomogeneous materials, such as concrete, high scattering attenuation occurs due to the presence of heterogeneities. The concrete behaves almost like a perfect absorber generating a considerable number of short-space…
Lock-In Signal Post-Processing Techniques in Infra-Red Thermography for Materials Structural Evaluation
2013
This paper describes the potential of off-line thermographic signal processing by means of Lock-In Correlation algorithms, in order to implement structural health monitoring and stress analysis techniques. Thermal datasets acquired by infrared thermocameras are locked-in and correlated numerically with opportune reference signals, and amplitude and phase values of various harmonics retrieved by means of a Fast Fourier Transform and time averaging based filtering. This information is then processed for NDT defect probing and for evaluating the Thermoelastic Effect induced temperature changes. Two case studies in particular are discussed, implementing the proposed signal lock-in processing: a…