Because of the growing use of fiber composites in a variety of applications including hull material of small marine craft, there is a need for inexpensive quantitative, nondestructive evaluation techniques for fiberglass, as well as for other composite materials to provide a basis for ensuring the integrity and serviceability of products made from them. The economic incentives for use of such a technique would be widespread. MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering had developed a non-destructive thermal testing technique to detect flaws in fiberglass composites. The technique involves uniform application of heat to one side of a composite structure that has been coated with a cholesteric liquid crystal compound. The temperature rise causes the liquid crystal to change color. Anomalies in the pattern of surface temperature, indicative of various kinds of internal flows, show up as anomalies in the pattern of color change in the liquid crystal coating. (DePo)
Nondestructive evaluation of fiber composites
Zerstoerungsfreie Pruefung von Faserverbundwerkstoffen
US Government Reports ; Jul ; 1-26
1980
26 Seiten
Report
English
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