INTRODUCTION

Fiber-reinforced composites belong to an important class of engineering materials that

has found increasing application in aerospace, automobiles, infrastructures and sporting
goods. A composite laminate is usually fabricated by stacking a number of plies of the
starting material, usually in the form of pre-impregnated tapes known as pre-pregs, in a
specified orientation and sequence called for in the design of the laminate. The stack of
uncured pre-pregs is then cured in an autoclave oven under pressure and at elevated
temperatures according to some prescribed cure cycle to produce a composite component. By
selecting ply materials, placing the plies at different orientations, and using different stacking
sequences, laminates with desired stiffnesses and strengths are easily obtained to meet
various load requirements in different applications. While such designability is often
considered to be a distinct advantage of composite laminates over conventional monolithic
materials, it also raises new challenges to the tasks of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and
materials characterization to ensure the integrity of composite laminates. In this dissertation,
two NDE and materials characterization problems on composite laminates are addressed: the
first is ply lay-up characterization, and the second is elastic property determination. The
purpose of ply lay-up characterization is to detect ply lay-up errors in a composite laminate at
the manufacturing stage. In traditional hand lay-up, ply lay-up errors can easily occur owing
to inadvertent mistakes. In automated lay-up, such errors can be caused by an incorrectly
programmed machine. Because the ply lay-up errors can adversely affect many properties of
a laminate, such as stiffness, strength, and hydro-thermal behavior, nondestructive methods
that can effectively detect those errors are highly desired, especially in the stage before final
curing. The requirement of the non-destructive methods for partial or complete determination
of the elastic properties of composite laminates is also clear. First, flaws induced in a
composite laminate owing either to manufacturing procedures or service-related problems 2
change the local elastic properties or related ultrasonic velocities. Effective and accurate
stiffness or velocity mapping can be important in flaw detection for ensuring the integrity of
composite components. Second, because the properties of a manufactured composite laminate
depends on various factors including ply material, ply lay-up, and the conditions of the curing
process, accurate prediction of the elastic behavior of a laminate is sometimes difficult. NDE
methods that permit a quick verification of the elastic properties of a laminate are therefore
desirable. This dissertation focuses on the two very important aspects of composite laminate
testing: the study of ultrasonic wave behavior to develop novel and effective methods a) to
characterize the ply lay-up and b) to determine the elastic properties in composite laminates.

Fiberglass has a white color and is available as a dry fiber fabric Four major types of
Glass Fiber used for composites: E-glass: have good strength & electrical resistivity. S-glass:
have 40% higher strength, better retention of properties at elevated temperatures. C-glass
have corrosion resistant. Quartz: have low dielectric properties, good for antennae. Glass
fiber exhibit two forms. Unidirectional Unidirectional tapes have been the standard within the
aerospace industry for many years, and the fibre is typically impregnated with thermosetting
resins. Tape products have high strength in the fiber direction. The fibers are mixed with the
resin. Bi-directional Most fabric constructions offer more flexibility for the layup of complex
shapes than straight unidirectional tapes offer. Fabrics offer the option for resin mixed either
by hot melt or the solution process. Generally, fabrics used for structural applications use like
fibers or strands of the same weight or yield in both the warp (longitudinal) and fill
(transverse) directions. For aerospace structures, tightly woven fabrics are usually to save
weight, minimizing size, and maintaining during the fabrication process.
Epoxy Resin

The resin is a generic term used to designate the polymer. The resin, its chemical
composition, and physical properties fundamentally affect the processing, material.
Thermosetting resins are the most diverse and widely used of all man-made materials. They
are easily poured or formed into any shape, are compatible with most other materials, and
cure readily (by heat or catalyst) into an insoluble solid. Thermosetting resins are also
excellent adhesives and bonding agents. Epoxy resin is mostly used. Epoxy resins are much
more expensive than polyester resins because of the high cost of the precursor chemicals
most notably epichlorohydrin. However, the increased complexity of the 'epoxy' polymer
chain and the potential for a greater degree of control of the cross-linking process gives a
much-improved matrix in terms of strength and ductility. Most epoxies require the hardener
and resin to be mixed in equal proportions. epoxies are used for full strength. It requires
heating to complete the curing process. This can be advantageous as the resin can be applied
directly to the fibres and curing need only take place at the time of manufacture. And known
as pre or pre-impregnated fiber. Epoxy polymers 6 are made by reacting epichlorohydrin with
biphenyl-A in an alkaline solution which absorbs the HCl released during the condensation
polymerization reaction. Each chain has a molecular weight between 900 and 3000 with an
epoxide grouping at each end of the chain but none within the polymer chain. The epoxy is
adding by a hardener in equal amounts and it is heated to about 120°C. The hardeners are
usually short chain diamines such as ethylene diamine. Heat is usually required since the
cross-linking involves the condensation of water which must be removed in the vapor phase.
Hardener A substance or mixture added to the plastic composition to promote or control the
curing action by taking part in it. Also, a substance added to control the degree of hardness of
the cured film.
Fiber volume ratio Vf

Fiber volume ratio is an important mathematical element in composite engineering.

Fiber volume ratio, or fiber volume fraction, is the percentage of fiber volume in the entire
volume of a fiber-reinforced composite material. When manufacturing polymer composites,
fibers are impregnated with resin. The amount of resin to fiber ratio is calculated by the
geometric organization of the fibers, which affects the amount of resin that can enter the
composite. The impregnation around the fibers is highly dependent on the orientation of the
fibers and the architecture of the fibers. The geometric analysis of the composite can be seen
in the cross-section of the composite. Voids are often formed in a composite structure
throughout the manufacturing process and must be calculated into the total fiber volume
fraction of the composite. The fraction of fiber reinforcement is very important in
determining the overall mechanical properties of a composite. A higher fiber volume fraction
typically results in better mechanical properties of the composite.

Calculating the volume of fiber ratio in a composite is relatively simple. The volume
fiber fraction can be calculated using a combination of weights, densities, elastic moduli,
stresses in respective directions, poison's ratios, and volumes of the matrix (resin system),
fibers, and voids.
Importance of Fiber Volume Fraction

The amount of fiber in a fiber reinforced composite directly corresponds with the
mechanical properties of the composite. Theoretically the maximum fiber ratio of round
fibers that can be achieved in a composite is 90.8% if the fibers are in a unidirectional
hexagonal close packed configuration. Realistically the highest fiber volume ratio is around
70% due to manufacturing parameters and is usually in the range of 50% to 65%. Adding too
little fiber reinforcement in the composite will actually deteriorate the properties of the
material. Too much fiber volume may also decrease the strength of the composite due to the
lack of space for the matrix to fully surround and bond with the fibers. Therefore, there is an
optimal space between fibers that will fully exploit the uniform load transfer between fibers.
Given the fiber volume fraction, the theoretical elastic properties of a composite can be
determined. The elastic modulus of a composite in the fiber direction of a unidirectional
composite can be calculated using the following equation:
Lay-up Sequences

Various means have been employed for checking the lay-up of a composite laminate.
Optical microscopic examination of cut and polished cross sections from a waste edge can
provide accurate and reliable results, but is destructive in nature and is very time consuming.
Microwave methods have been developed to study the fiber orientation in graphite/epoxy and
glass/epoxy composites. The angular dependence of the transmitted microwave signal
amplitude has been used to detect ply lay-up errors. Ultrasonic approaches have also been
investigated. Bar-Cohen introduced the polar backscattering method, where the backscattered
signal amplitude as a function of the orientation angle of the plate usually showed a series of
peaks that were often correlated with fiber orientation in the plate. A peak occurred when the
ultrasonic beam was perpendicular to a group of fibers. However, the angular pattern could
be complicated and distorted for laminates of complex ply lay-ups. Another ultrasonic
method that showed sensitivity to fiber orientation was the "acousto-ultrasonic" method,
where two contact-mode longitudinal wave transducers are coupled to the same side of the
plate; the receiving transducer is rotated around the transmitting transducer and the signal
amplitude is recorded as a function of angle. A peak occurs when the path between the
transducers is aligned with a group of fibers. This method has the similar drawbacks as the
polar backscattering method: the measured angular patterns may be difficult to interpret for
laminates of complex ply lay-ups. In an elastically anisotropic composite laminate, the
propagation of oblique incidence ultrasonic waves is quite complex due to many mode
conversions in the laminate. For linearly polarized normally incident shear waves, however,
there are only two pure shear wave modes in each ply; these are polarized parallel and
perpendicular to the fiber direction. The orientation of the fibers in each ply strongly affects
the propagation of shear waves through the thickness of a laminate; as a result, the
transmitted shear wave signal carries with it the information about the fiber orientation and
stacking sequence of the ply lay-up. They also developed a ply-to-ply vector decomposition
based on the displacement continuity at each ply interface to interpret the transmission
results. The model was found to provide useful qualitative guide in data interpretation and In
the EMAT setup the composite laminate was sandwiched between two aluminium delay
blocks and the EMAT transducers were placed on the outer surfaces of the aluminum blocks
where the transducers can rotate freely in a non-contact manner. For uncured composite
laminates, the coupling was provided by pressing the blocks against the laminate, without the
use of a couplant. For cured laminates, shear wave couplant was still used between the
specimen and the metal blocks, but the coupling condition was much easier to maintain
constant because the bonds between the specimen and the blocks are not disturbed by the
rotation of the EMAT transducers. In this dissertation the EMAT-generated shear wave
transmission technique for ply lay-up characterization in composite laminates has been
completely studied, both theoretically and experimentally.
The Laminator is an engineering program written for Windows that analyze laminated
composite plates according to classical laminated plate theory. Input consists of ply material
properties, material strengths, ply fiber orientation and stacking sequence, mechanical loads
and/or strains, and temperature and moisture loads. Output consists of apparent laminate
material properties, ply stiffness and compliance matrices, laminate "ABD" matrices,
laminate loads and mid-plane strains, ply stresses and strains in global and material axes, and
load factors for ply failure based on Maximum Stress, Maximum Strain, Tsai-Hill, Hoffman,
and Tsai-Wu failure theories. A micromechanics calculator is also included for estimating
lamina properties for given fiber and matrix properties.

The result of lamina and laminate properties shown in table 1 and table 2.
LAM Material Density [Mg/m^3] Youngs Mod Poisson Ratio S
[GPa] [
INA
PRO
PER
TIES
(table
1)X 
Fiber: E-Glass 2.56 70.00 0.22 2
Matrix: Epoxy 1.25 4.50 0.39 1
(

FIBER VOLUME FRACTION= 0.5   LAMINA THICKNESS [length 0

units] =
  Angle,PHI, rel. to ref. 9
[degrees] =
E1 (equal stress approximation) 37.25 GPa E
=

E2 (equal strain approximation) 8.46 GPa

=
E2 (Halpin-Tsai approximation) = 11.56 GPa E
Xi = 1.00

G12 (SLAB equal stress spprox.) 3.06 GPa

=
G13 (SLAB equal strain approx.) 15.15 GPa
=
G12 (Halpin-Tsai approximation) 4.23 GPa E
=
Xi = 1.00
G23 (using HT & G-E 3.67 GPa
relationship) =
 
K (hydrostatic approximation) = 11.72 GPa  
 
 
NU12 (equal strain 0.31
approximation) =
NU21 (using HT & NU-E 0.09
relationship) =
NU23 (hydrostatic 0.58
approximation) =

Weight fraction of fibers = 0.67

Density of composite = 2.13 Mg/m^3
ON-AXIS LOADING        
 

  26.85 -8.19 0
  Plane-stress orthotropic lamina -8.19 86.51 0
[S] =
  0.00 0.00 2
 
 
 

  38.36 3.63 0
  Plane-stress orthotropic lamina 3.63 11.90 0
[C] =
  0.00 0.00 4
           

OFF-AXIS LOADING c= 1.0000 c^2 = 1

  s= 0.0000 s^2 = 0
  Ply/load Angle 0
[degrees] =
  26.85 -8.19 0
  Plane-stress orthotropic lamina -8.19 86.51 0
[S-bar] =
  0.00 0.00 2
 
 
 

  38.36 3.63 0
  Plane-stress orthotropic lamina 3.63 11.90 0
[C-bar] =
  0.00 0.00 4
           

OFF-AXIS LOADING ELASTIC CONSTANTS  

       
    Ex [GPa] = 37.250
    Ey [GPa] = 11.560
    Gxy [GPa] = 4.231
       
    NUxy = 0.305
    NUyx = 0.095
       
    ETAxyx = 0.000
    ETAxyy = 0.000
       
LAMINATE PROPERTIES (table 2)
LAMINAT
E
No LOADING
. Fiber Matrix f Ply angle Thickness     ANGLE = 90
1 Kevlar 49 PEEK 0.3 0 0

2 Kevlar 49 PEEK 0.3 0 0

3 Kevlar 49 PEEK 0.3 0 0

4 E-Glass Epoxy 0.5 90 0.17

5 E-Glass Epoxy 0.5 0 0

6 E-Glass Epoxy 0.5 0 0

7 E-Glass Epoxy 0.5 0 0

8 E-Glass Epoxy 0.5 0 0

9 E-Glass Epoxy 0.5 0 0

10 E-Glass Epoxy 0.5 0 0

SUM OF t = 3.17

STIFFNESS MATRIX BY SUMMATION:

25.26 7.62 0.00

[Cg] = 7.62 12.61 0.00
 0.00 0.00 8.04

COMPLIANCE MATRIX BY INVERSION:

scaling factor
48.41 -29.26 0.00
[Sg] = -29.26 97.00 0.00 1.00E-03 [1/GPa]
0.00 0.00 124.33

DELTA = 2094.42

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THE LAMINATE:

     
Ex [GPa]
  = 20.656
Ey [GPa]
  = 10.309
Gxy [GPa]
  = 8.043
     
  NUxy = 0.604
  NUyx = 0.302
     
  ETAxyx = 0.000
  ETAxyy = 0.000