Pulsed eddy current (PEC) technique is commonly used for the detection of sub-surface defects in electrically conductive metals. However, due to the limited penetration depth of eddy currents, the detection of sub-surface defects in ferromagnetic metals is limited while using PEC technique. In order to extend the application of PEC technique for the detection of sub-surface defects in ferromagnetic metals, the penetration depth of eddy currents needs to be increased. For deeper penetration of eddy currents in the material, magnetic saturation of the tested specimen is a useful solution. In magnetic saturation state, the magnetic permeability of the ferromagnetic metal is decreased and stabilized and, as a result, the penetration depth of eddy currents is increased. In this paper, the performance of the PECT for detection of sub-surface pitting defects in the magnetized ferromagnetic specimen has been investigated through finite element modeling (FEM) and experimental studies. The tested specimen is a 10mm-thick steel plate, in which sub-surface pitting defects with various depths have been modeled. A probe consisting of a driver coil, a pickup coil, and a ferrite core is used to measure the time-varying PEC signals. Then, the time domain features of the differential PEC signals are extracted and used to detect the sub-surface pittings. The results indicate that PEC technique together with magnetization can effectively detect sub-surface pitting defects.

Today, application of polymeric composites and sandwich panels has increased in the industry due to their lower weight to volume ratio and also better mechanical properties in comparison with metals used in automotive and marine industries in diverse structures. Detection of failure initiation and examination of failure mechanism in composites, especially for sandwich, panels are state of art. In this research, the Acoustic Emission (AE), as a non-destructive testing method, was applied to estimate the residual strength of the polyester/glass fiber sandwich pannel with polyurethane foam with 3 different lay-up techniques. Sandwich panels were placed in 3 different energy levels under a low velocity impact and, then, with a three-point bending test, their bending strength was evaluated using the acoustic Emission. By simultaneously analyzing the acoustic data and examining the force-displacement diagrams obtained from the bending test and their correlation, the remained strength of the sandwich panels, priorly damaged by impacts of different energy levels, is estimated. For this purpose, the accumulated acoustic energy during bending and strain energy from the force-displacement diagrams have been used to calculate the recently presented Sentry function of pre-damaged samples to compare with a virgin case without previous defect. The results show that there is a direct relationship between Sentry function data as a new indicator of residual strength and accumulated energy of acoustic data that contains the effects of various failure mechanisms. In the largest destroyed sample with fiber layout of 90 and 45 degrees with respect to bending direction containing a maximum pre-impact of 60 Jules, the highest strength drop was up to 27% compared to the virgin sample.

Delamination or interlayer cracking is one of the most important imperfections in composite materials. The existence of this defect in a structure reduces the strength and, as a result, disables the structure. To analyze the effective factors in interlayer separation, it is necessary to analyze the effective loading parameters. In this paper, the effect of the change in loading rate on the failure mechanism in I failure mode was analyzed using an acoustic emission for unidirectional samples made of glass fiber/epoxy resin. At first composite, samples were made according to standard and placed at different rates of displacement under loading. Force data, displacement and crack growth rate for different loading rates were used to calculate the exact strain energy release rate. In addition to the extensometer, the Dino camera was used. In this paper, a high-reliability method was proposed to evaluate the separation between the layered composites using acoustic emission method. By comparing mechanical data and acoustic emission signals, the mechanical behavior obtained for each loading rate was determined so that the mechanical behavior of the composite material varied with the change in loading rate. The results show that, with increasing loading rates, the resin lost its elastic properties, and the specimen exhibited a more rigid behavior and is quite rigorous so that the fracture failure process is changed. The failure processes and crack growth rate was validated by use of acoustic emission signals. There was good agreement between the fracture toughness of accretion of acoustic emission signals with the experimental values.

Nowadays, the use of a non-contact digital imaging system for non-destructive testing on composite materials has received much attention because of its advantages. In this research, the shape, position and area of ​​the breakdown region in glass/epoxy samples with blind holes and different depths under tensile loading have been investigated using a non-contact digital imaging system. Specimens with a 10 mm diameter blind, depths of 0.5, 1 and 1.5 mm, and an average thickness of 4 mm have been subjected to the tensile loading. Lateral strain contours for all three samples have been obtained at different loads. By increasing the lateral strain loading, it focuses on an area on the surface of each specimen that corresponds to the position of the blind hole. Then the lateral strain is measured separately in length and width for each specimen. Increasing the amount of loading and the depth of the breakdown have resulted in greater strain concentration in the breakdown area as well as increasing the accuracy of the digital images correlation system. The position, shape, area, and diameter of the blind hole measured by digital image correlation method have been compared with real values, which considering the acceptable consistency of the results of the digital image correlation method with the features of each sample, It can be used as an efficient method for detecting and evaluating failures in composite structures.

Currently, composite structures have many applications in various industries including aerospace, automotive, marine, and petrochemicals. In most of these applications, the structure is under dynamic and static loads and it can cause buckling, vibration, and fatigue. Therefore, the static and dynamic analysis of these structures is essential in order to understand their characteristics, including buckling, natural frequency, and the shape of vibrating modes. One of the most important non-destructive methods for predicting the buckling load of the structure is the vibrational correlation technique (VCT), which is based on frequency variations with the axial load. In this study, an experimental study of the buckling load of composite sandwich plates with lozenge core has been investigated. The hand lay-up method has been used for fabrication of the composite sandwich plates. One of the specimens was used for the modal test. In order to verify the results of the VCT, the buckling load of four specimens was calculated by the experimental buckling test. The error of VCT was 2.1 %. Hence, the efficiency of the VCT for composite sandwich plates with lattice core was confirmed. Also, by investigating the effect of applied load percentage on the accuracy of the VCT, it was found that for the applied load of more than 63% of the buckling load, the accuracy of prediction of the vibrational correlation technique is acceptable.

Employing nonlinear dynamic signature of the host structure for early damage detection and remaining useful life estimation purposes, is an emerging idea in the area of piezoelectric patches based structural health monitoring. Clamped support loosening is one of the defects that not only may cause disorder in system’s functioning, but also obstruct damage identification process through distorting the signals. In this study, support loosening induced contact acoustic nonlinearity (CAN) behavior was monitored by vibro-acoustic modulation (VAM) technique. Using miniaturized PZT patches with the capability to be installed on the host structure permanently for both pump and probe actuation as well as sensing the modulated signal, enabled online monitoring via VAM technique. An appropriate filter was designed to eliminate the unintentionally excited natural frequencies and to reveal the sidebands. In this study, the sensitivity of modulation strength to the pump excitation frequency was also investigated. According to the results, appearance of sidebands around the central probe frequency is an appropriate indicator for CAN identification. In order to study the mechanism of modulation phenomenon, a coupled field electromechanical finite element (FE) model was developed. Proper matching of the numerical and experimental results indicates sufficient accuracy of the developed FE model and its potential to predict the modulation behavior.

Thermal image analysis can be used to identify and detect patch defects in the interface between multilayer sheets. Specimens made for testing were carbon fiber and glass fiber patches on aluminum sheets that were embedded in composite patch layers, for interlayer separation, in different metal-patch joints. The defect pattern was designed so that the bugs at the edge and center of the patch were tested simultaneously. In this study, the effects of depth and dimension of separation faults with pulsed heat treatment were identified and investigated. Then, the factors affecting the accuracy of the identified defect size were investigated. In the thermal images obtained, almost all the defects can be identified by pulsed thermography and with increasing the size of the defect the thermal difference with the sound areas increases. It was found that the defects in the carbon fiber field were up to an average of 1°C, there was a greater thermal difference than that of glass fiber field. However, the results showed that the accuracy of the measurement of defects in glass fiber was 2 times higher than that of carbon fiber.

In this study, the effect of fiber presence in continuous fiber reinforced Fused Deposition Modeling samples (FDM) on the stress and residual strain created during the process was investigated. The FDM process has become one of the most widely used Additive Manufacturing methods for layered prototypes from a three-dimensional model. One of the most important issues in this process is the distortion of parts produced during printing. The distortion created is mainly due to the rapid cycles of melting and solidification of the material, which produce residual stresses in the sample. The main objective of this study was to measure the residual strain rate of residual stress in unreinforced and reinforced PLA samples with continuous fiber using digital image correlation and hole drilling technique. Digital imaging is one of the novel non-contact optical methods for measuring displacements, detecting defects and investigating the properties of components. Among the various optical methods, digital image correlation is superior to other optical methods due to its low cost, high speed and no need for phase analysis. According to the results, the maximum strain in the fiber reinforced specimen in the x and y directions was 1.09 and 0.34%, respectively. The strains released in the reinforced specimen were higher than other specimen at all stages of drilling.