Search Results (9)

To replicate delaminations at the coupon and substructural scales, simulated defects are often introduced into test specimens; therefore, understanding their behaviour within the laminate is essential. Full-field imaging is employed to investigate the effects of artificial defects in Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composites. Centre Crack Ply (CCP) specimens are used to evaluate the Mode II fracture toughness of laminated composites from a simple tensile test. Two batches of specimens are manufactured using IM7/8552. Artificial defects are introduced using a steel film insert of 5 µm thickness. For the first type of samples, the inserts were coated with Frekote release agent, while for the second type, the steel inserts were incorporated into the laminate without coating. Additionally, a third batch of specimens with a [0₄, 90]s layup is manufactured. Thermoelastic Stress Analysis (TSA) and Digital Image Correlation (DIC) are employed to obtain full-field temperature and displacement data from the tested samples. The inclusion of 90-degree plies enhances thermal contrast exploiting, their anisotropic mechanical and thermal properties. First, the specimens are tested under monotonic loading to failure, with DIC used to capture strain distributions at damage initiation and failure. In addition, acoustic emission is employed to evaluate damage initiation. Load drops provide an indirect evaluation of fracture toughness. Results show that full-field imaging is capable of establishing how the release agent and the layup configuration influence damage initiation and propagation. The non-adiabatic thermoelastic response is shown to be effective in observing subsurface damage. Finally, a novel approach to evaluate fracture toughness from the temperature increase at the failure event is proposed. Full article

The time change in data measured by infrared thermography is used to analyze thermoelastic stress. Displacement caused by the load on the measurement object is the cause of the apparent temperature change. To prevent this, it is effective to photograph the measurement object with a visible camera synchronized with the infrared thermography. The displacement of the measurement object calculated from the visible image is converted to the movement in the infrared thermography, and the displacement is corrected. In this study, a system was developed using thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) to measure temperature changes due to the load when a car passes over a steel bridge. Full article

Stimulated thermography is a very common non-destructive testing (NDT) technique used for a wide range of applications and materials. An external excitation source is required to stimulate the component and detect defects. Electric currents can be used in this sense adopting two different approaches: induction thermography and conduction thermography. In this work, a preliminary investigation to evaluate the influence of some test parameters during experiments of conduction thermography, for the detection of short fatigue cracks, induced in thin specimens of different materials, is presented. The capability of the technique and crack detectability have been analysed and compared with the Thermoelastic Stress Analysis (TSA) considered as a well-established technique capable of quantifying short fatigue cracks in metal materials. Full article

Thermography techniques are gaining popularity in structural integrity monitoring and analysis of mechanical systems’ behavior because they are contactless, non-intrusive, rapidly deployable, applicable to structures under harsh environments, and can be performed on-site. More so, the use of image optical techniques has grown quickly over the past several decades due to the progress in the digital camera, infrared camera, and computational power. This work focuses on thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA), and its main goal was to create a computational model based on the finite element method that simulates this technique, to evaluate and quantify how the changes in material properties, including orthotropic, affect the results of the stresses obtained with TSA. The numeric simulations were performed for two samples, compact and single lap joints. when comparing the numeric model developed with previous laboratory tests, the results showed a good representation of the stress test for both samples. The created model is applicable to various materials, including fiber-reinforced composites. This work also highlights the need to perform laboratory tests using anisotropic materials to better understand the TSA potential and improve the developed models. Full article

Thermoelastic Stress Analysis (TSA) is one of the very few methods allowing the determination of a continuous stress distribution on the object’s surface under variable loading conditions. Such results provide a lot of valuable information in the field of technical condition assessment and residual life prediction. In order to improve the accuracy of the TSA, the Lock-In signal processing method is implemented. This research is aimed at verifying the effectiveness of this improvement and determining the TSA stress detection threshold, as it is important information in terms of the applicability of this method in the low-stress conditions encountered in considerations of fatigue of load-carrying structures. A steel sample with a centrally located hole was subjected to cyclic loads to determine the threshold of stress detection and accuracy of TSA. As a result of the research, the relationship between the magnitude of stress excitations and the underestimation of the measured stresses was developed. Based on the conducted investigations, it was concluded that reasonable TSA results can be acquired for excitations that induce a temperature response above 10 mK (0.5 NEDT). The presented field test example proves that in industrial applications reasonable results can be acquired for thermal responses below the NEDT of the IR camera. It was concluded that it is possible to successfully implement TSA in low-stress applications (temperature response below NEDT). Full article

Short fiber reinforced plastics (SFRPs) have excellent moldability and productivity compared to continuous fiber composites. In this study, thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) was applied to detect delamination defects in short carbon fiber reinforced plastics (SCFRPs). The thermoelastic temperature change ΔT_E, phase of thermal signal θ_E, and second harmonic temperature component ΔT_D were measured. In the fatigue test of SCFRP, it was confirmed that changes in ΔT_E, θ_E, and ΔT_D appeared in the damaged regions. A staircase-like stress level test for a SCFRP specimen was conducted to investigate the generation mechanism of the ΔT_D. The distortion of the temperature change appeared at the maximum tension stress of the sinusoidal load—and when the stress level decreased, the temperature change returned to the original sinusoidal waveform. ΔT_D changed according to the change in the maximum stress during the staircase-like stress level test, and a large value of ΔT_D was observed in the final ruptured region. A distortion of the temperature change and ΔT_D was considered to be caused by the change in stress sharing condition between the fiber and resin due to delamination damage. Therefore, ΔT_D can be applied to the detection of delamination defects and the evaluation of damage propagation. Full article

Thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) is a non-contact technique for measuring the distribution of stress in the surface of a component subject to cyclic loading by using a sensitive infrared camera. The stress concentrations indicative of a crack can be located and tracked using an optical flow method, allowing the position of the crack-tip to be identified at a given time. Acoustic emission (AE) has been used to validate the TSA algorithm. AE events from cracking, located using the Delta-T Mapping method, were detected several seconds before the TSA algorithm first detected cracking; however, TSA provided significantly more accurate location information. Full article

All the studies on the thermoelastic behaviour of materials, including the revised higher order theory on the thermoelastic effect, are based on several assumptions that limit the application of such theory to the cases of isotropic materials in the presence of uniaxial residual stresses and undergoing uniaxial applied loads. These assumptions lead to some discrepancies in the description of the real thermoelastic behaviour of materials in the presence of residual stresses. In this work, by rewriting the thermoelastic equation in a different way, it was possible to study the behaviour of homogeneous and non-isotropic materials undergoing any loading conditions and residual stresses. Firstly, the error made by the calibration procedures of thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) data in the presence of residual stresses has been investigated. Then, a statistical analysis was carried out to determine the minimum value of residual stress which would lead to significant and measurable variations in the thermoelastic signal. The simulations involved two non-ferrous metals: AA6082 and Ti6Al4V, which exhibit a specific thermoelastic behaviour. Full article

Carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) is widely used for structural members of transportation vehicles such as automobile, aircraft, or spacecraft, utilizing its excellent specific strength and specific rigidity in contrast with the metal. Short carbon fiber composite materials are receiving a lot of attentions because of their excellent moldability and productivity, however they show complicated behaviors in fatigue fracture due to the random fibers orientation. In this study, thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA) using an infrared thermography was applied to evaluate fatigue damage in short carbon fiber composites. The distribution of the thermoelastic temperature change was measured during the fatigue test, as well as the phase difference between the thermoelastic temperature change and applied loading signal. Evolution of fatigue damage was detected from the distribution of thermoelastic temperature change according to the thermoelastic damage analysis (TDA) procedure. It was also found that fatigue damage evolution was more clearly detected than before by the newly developed thermoelastic phase damage analysis (TPDA) in which damaged area was emphasized in the differential phase delay images utilizing the property that carbon fiber shows opposite phase thermoelastic temperature change. Full article