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Experimental Assessment of a Modal-Based Multi-Parameter Method for Locating Damage in Composite Laminates

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Abstract

The low specific weight of composite materials, together with their excellent mechanical properties, make them suitable to be widely used in many modern engineering structures. However, composite materials are quite sensitive to impacts: a specific kind of damage, called Barely Visible Impact Damage (BVID), may occur, constituting an unsafe failure of difficult assessment. In the past few years several methods have been developed aiming at assessing this type of damage. In this paper, a vibration-based technique that combines both the natural frequencies and the modal damping factors as damage sensitive features is tested for locating impact damage in carbon fibre reinforced laminates. The method is intended to be used for locating damage in real laminated composite structures that undergo in-service impacts, such as an airplane’s fuselage or wings. Assessing a minimum of one response coordinate is the strict requirement during each inspection, because it uses the dynamic global parameters of the structure as damage features. This is possible because the method assumes that, at least for BVID, the mode shapes remain practically unchanged. The theory is summarized and the method is tested using experimental setups where damage is introduced at different locations. Additionally, the hypothesis that different damage morphologies on composite materials have different contributions to the damage features is addressed.

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Notes

  1. Later, it will be shown that damage introduces only slight variations in the mode shapes.

  2. Except for the healthy state of plate A1, later on referred to as A1H, where testing was carried out in the 0–400 Hz frequency range. Soon after, the frequency range was increased in order to get more modes.

  3. Except for the direct FRF, all the other response measurement locations were chosen so that they would not be over a nodal line of the plate up to 400 Hz, as shown later in Fig. 4.

  4. Due to the [0/45/-45/90]S quasi-isotropic layup. One of the concerns when building the FE model of a composite material is whether it should be made using layered elements or not [20]. The behaviour of a laminate, from the macromechanical point of view and at least as long as it is orthotropic, can be described with the engineering constants of the laminate instead of those of the laminae. One of the advantages of modelling a composite material as a homogeneous non-layered material is that it is possible to determine the engineering constants through simple tests such as uniaxial tension tests. Furthermore, it is much simpler to define the material properties and real constants in the FE modelling software for homogeneous rather than for layered materials, especially when woven prepregs are used. To build the FE model with layered elements, the properties of a single ply can be determined first and the plate properties then built up using laminate theory. Unless the study is meant to have a broader sense (e.g., failure criteria calculation), the first approach seems to be reliable enough for the assessment of the mode shapes in a rectangular plate: and this is really what is needed for the present study. A comparison between different FE models of the plate presented here and other details concerning FE modelling can be found in [21].

  5. Polytec Scan Viewer 1.31 is freeware software for visualization purposes of the mode shapes only. BETAlab© is a modal identification program, fully developed by the first author, that is briefly introduced on section “Extracting Dynamic Properties”.

  6. Often called phasor, this quantity is complex because it includes the phase. In the case of the formula shown, it is a displacement, but it could be a velocity or acceleration instead.

  7. Sometimes the term “probability” will be used in the course of this text when referring to the damage location index. It would be more correct to use terms such as “likelihood” instead, as “probability” is not used in a strict mathematical sense. However, we thought the word “probability” would be quite suggestive.

  8. MuDI© is a custom made program which allows the implementation of the damage location algorithm proposed in this work. It was fully developed by the authors in LabVIEW™ 7.1 from National Instruments™.

  9. The environmental conditions were the same when measuring different damaged states, not introducing disturbing effects on the results.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Prof. Patrick Guillaume and his Ph.D. student (now Dr.) Ing. Christof Devriendt from the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel for the use of their laboratory equipment in their facilities, in particular two scanning LASER vibrometers, as well as giving valuable advices and guidance in the experimental testing.

Thanks are also due to Prof. João Travassos and Ing. Paulo Caldeira from Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa of the Polytechnic Institute of Lisbon for the use of their autoclave and consumables for the production of CFRP plates, as well as to Prof. Rui de Carvalho from Instituto Superior Técnico of the Technical University of Lisbon and Ing. Marco Leite from Escola Superior de Tecnologia de Abrantes of the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar for the help and expertise on the introduction of damage in the CFRP laminates.

The authors would also like to acknowledge Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) and the European Social Fund under the III Community Support Framework, for financial support through grant reference number SFRH/BD/27329/2006.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Escola Superior de Tecnologia, Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal, Campus do IPS, Estefanilha, 2910-761, Setúbal, Portugal

    D. Montalvão & J. A. B. Duarte-Silva

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal

    D. Montalvão & A. M. R. Ribeiro

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  1. D. Montalvão
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  2. A. M. R. Ribeiro
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  3. J. A. B. Duarte-Silva
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Correspondence to D. Montalvão.

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Montalvão, D., Ribeiro, A.M.R. & Duarte-Silva, J.A.B. Experimental Assessment of a Modal-Based Multi-Parameter Method for Locating Damage in Composite Laminates. Exp Mech 51, 1473–1488 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-011-9472-5

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