Method and system of non-destructive testing for composites

Abstract

Method and system are disclosed for characterizing and quantifying composite laminate structures. The method and system take a composite laminate of unknown ply stack composition and sequence and determine various information about the individual plies, such as ply stack, orientation, microstructure, and type. The method and system distinguishes between weave types that exhibit similar planar stiffness behaviors, but which produce different failure mechanisms. Individual ply information then is used to derive the laminate bulk properties from externally provided constitutive properties of the fiber and matrix, including extensional stiffness, bending-extension coupling stiffness, bending stiffness, and the like. The laminate bulk properties are then used to generate a probabilistic failure envelope for the composite laminate. This provides the ability to perform non-destructive QA to ensure that individual lamina layup was accomplished according to specifications, and results are used to identify numerous laminate properties beyond purely structural ones.