Non-destructive Testing of Impact Damage in Fiber-reinforced Polymer Composites: Fundamentals and Applications provides detailed knowledge on the fundamentals and applications of frequently used nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques utilized to assess impact damage in composite structures. This book starts with an introduction to impact damage in composite structures, each subsequent chapter focuses on evaluating damage using specific NDT methods. Chapters 2–4 concentrate on vision-based NDT methods such as visual inspection, digital image correlation, and digital shearography. Following this, Chapters 5–6 delve into ultrasound-based methods, including acoustic emission and phased-array ultrasonic inspection. Radiation-based methods, micro-CT, and thermography are discussed in Chapters 7 and 8, while Chapters 9 and 10 elucidate microwave inspection and electrical impedance tomography. This book is a useful reference for both academia and industry and covers the fundamentals, practical tips, case studies, and applications, as well as current research trends and future possibilities, for each technique. Insights into the diverse damage levels in composite materials resulting from low-velocity impact, ranging from micro matrix cracks to severe delamination and fiber breakage Covers a broad range of NDT techniques, including recently developed NDT techniques, suitable for detecting impact damage in composite materials Serves as a valuable reference for both academia and industry, providing comprehensive coverage of fundamental principles, practical insights, applications, case studies, current research trends, and future prospects for each NDT technique

A collection of 16 papers from an international symposium in San Antonio, November 1990, focusing on the necessary coordination between materials scientists, stress analysts, and non-destructive evaluation specialists, for successfully designing, building, certifying, and maintaining composite struc

The advantages of composite materials include a high specific strength and stiffness, formability, and a comparative resistance to fatigue cracking and corrosion. However, not forsaking these advantages, composite materials are prone to a wide range of defects and damage that can significantly reduce the residual strength and stiffness of a structure or result in unfavorable load paths. Emphasizing defect identification and restitution, Defects and Damage in Composite Materials and Structures explains how defects and damage in composite materials and structures impact composite component performance. Providing ready access to an extensive, descriptive list of defects and damage types, this must-have reference: Examines defect criticality in composite structures Recommends repair actions to restore structural integrity Discusses failure modes and mechanisms of composites due to defects Reviews NDI processes for finding and identifying defects in composite materials Relating defect detection methods to defect type, the author merges his experience in the field of in-service activities for composite airframe maintenance and repair with indispensable reports and articles on defects and damage in advanced composite materials from the last 50 years.

The Virtual Fields Method: Extracting Constitutive Mechanical Parameters from Full-field Deformation Measurements is the first and only one on the Virtual Fields Method, a recent technique to identify materials mechanical properties from full-field measurements. It contains an extensive theoretical description of the method as well as numerous examples of application to a wide range of materials (composites, metals, welds, biomaterials etc.) and situations(static, vibration, high strain rate etc.). Finally, it contains a detailed training section with examples of progressive difficulty to lead the reader to program the VFM. This is accompanied with a set of commented Matlab programs as well as with a GUI Matlab based software for more general situations.

The objective of this study was to increase the understanding of damage in composite materials with through-the-thickness reinforcements. As a first step it was necessary to develop new ultrasonic imaging technology to better assess internal damage of the composite. A useful ultrasonic imaging technique has been successfully developed to assess the internal damage of composite panels. The ultrasonic technique accurately determines the size of the internal damage. It was found that the ultrasonic imaging technique was better able to assess the damage in a composite panel with through-the-thickness reinforcements than by destructively sectioning the specimen and visual inspection under a microscope. Microscopic determination of crack location and lengths in a composite panel with through-the-thickness reinforcements was almost impossible. Five composite compression-after-impact panels were tested. The compression-after-impact strength of the panels with the through-the thickness reinforcements was almost twice that of the comparable panel without through-the-thickness reinforcement. REFERENCES 1. B.T. Smith, J.S. Heyman, A.M. Buoncristiani, Earl D. Blodgett, J.G. Miller, and S.M. Freeman, Correlation of the Deply TechniQue with the Ultrasonic Imaging of Impact Damage in Graphite/Epoxy Composites, Materials Evaluation, vol. 47, NO. 12, December 1989, pp 1408-1416. 2. NASA Tech Briefs, June 1987, p. 28. 3. P.M. Gammel, Improved Ultrasonic Detection using Analytic Signal Magnitude. Ultrasonics, Vol. 19, March 1981, pp 73-76. 4. R.C. Heyser, Determination of Loudspeaker Signal Arrival Times Part ~ Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Vol. 19, Dec. 1971, pp 902-905.

This book was proposed and organized as a means to present recent developments in the field of nondestructive testing of materials in civil engineering. For this reason, the articles highlighted in this editorial relate to different aspects of nondestructive testing of different materials in civil engineering—from building materials to building structures. The current trend in the development of nondestructive testing of materials in civil engineering is mainly concerned with the detection of flaws and defects in concrete elements and structures, and acoustic methods predominate in this field. As in medicine, the trend is towards designing test equipment that allows one to obtain a picture of the inside of the tested element and materials. From this point of view, interesting results with significance for building practices have been obtained