Ultrasonic Inspection of Localized Defects in Low-Porosity CFRP

A preliminary backscattered signal model of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) laminate was established. The backscattered signal model was composed of three sub models, which were concerned with structural signal, scattering signal, and non-acoustic noise. Resonance in structural signal and echoes excited by defects (porosity and rich-resin) were studied. The results showed that: resonance would occur when there was sufficient bandwidth; when the CFRP laminate contained voids, the center frequency of the backscattered signal decreased; and the localized defects, including rich-resin and localized porosity, tended to generate apparent echoes where they located. A simplified backscattered signal model was subsequently put forward, showing certain potential in revealing time-frequency properties of backscattered signals. The newly proposed variational mode decomposition was used for defect modes extraction, successfully avoiding the mode mixing and false modes which easily exist in empirical mode decomposition. Subsequently, the generalized Stockwell transform was adopted for the defects localization. The simulation and experiment denoted the coincidence between the backscattered signal model and the experimental signal, and showed the effectiveness of variational mode decomposition and generalized Stockwell transform in localized defects detection.