NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION (NDE) OF COMPOSITEMETAL BOND.pdfVIP

NONDESTRUCTIVE EVALUATION (NDE) OF COMPOSITE/METAL BOND INTERFACE OF A WIND TURBINE BLADE USING AN ACOUSTO-ULTRASONIC TECHNIQUE* John H. Gieske and Mark A Rumsey Sandia National Laboratories P.O. Box 5800, MS 0615 Albuquerque, NM 87185-0615 Abstract Ultrasonic Inspection Techniques An acousto-ultrasonic inspection technique was An investigation of characterizing the root bond area developed to evaluate the structural integrity of the shown in Figure 1 for defects was undertaken using epoxy bond interface between a metal insert and the ultrasonic techniques. Normal pulse-echo, through fiber glass epoxy composite of a wind turbine blade. Data was generated manually as well as with a PC based data acquisition and display system. C-scan imaging using a portable ultrasonic scanning system provided an area mapping of the delamination or disbond due to fatigue testing, field operation conditions, or manufactured conditions of a turbine blade. Comparison of inspection data with a destructive visual examination of the bond interface to determine the extent of the disbond showed good agreement between the acousto- ultrasonic inspection data and visual data. Introduction Sandia National Laboratories has been investigating tubular composite-to-metal lap joints.1,2 As a tool to transmission, and pitch-catch techniques were determine the quality of the joint bonds, pulse-echo examined. A cross section of the root bond area ultrasonic C-scan NDI techniques have been used. The showing the geometry and propagation path of principles of ultrasonic C-scan imaging with manual and ultrasonic p