Characterization of CFRP Laminates′Layups Using Through-Transmitting Ultrasound Waves

Ultrasound waves interact strongly with the orientation and sequence of the plies in a layup when propagating in the thickness direction of composite laminates. Also the layup orientation greatly influences its properties in a composite laminate. If the layup orientation of a ply is misaligned, it could result in the part being rejected and discarded. Now, most researchers cut a small coupon from the waste edge and use a microscope to optically verify the ply sequences on important parts. This may add a substantial cost to the production since the test is both labor intensive and performed after the part is cured. A nondestructive technique would be very beneficial, which could be used to test the part after curing and requires less time than the optical test. Therefore we have developed, reduced, and implemented a novel ply-by-ply vector decomposition model for composite laminates fabricated from unidirectional plies. This model decomposes the transmission of a linearly polarized ultrasound wave into orthogonal components through each ply of a laminate. High probability is found, by comparisons between the model and tests, in characterizing cured layups of the laminates by using the proposed method.