NDE of hybrid armor structures using acoustography

Journal Article · Thu Jun 23 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3592047· OSTI ID:21511602

Sandhu, Jaswinder S ^[1]; Pergantis, Charles G ^[2]

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1. Santec Systems, Inc., 716 S. Milwaukee Avenue Wheeling, IL (United States)
2. U.S. Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (United States)

The US Army is investigating the use of composite materials to deliver lightweight and more effective armor protection systems to soldiers and other army assets. However, widespread use of such hybrid armor will require a reliable but fast NDE methodology to ensure integrity of these components during manufacturing and while in service. Traditional ultrasonic inspection of such hybrid armor structures may prove to be very effective, but point-by-point ultrasonic scanning is inherently time-consuming and manufacturing slowdowns could develop in high-volume production of such armor systems. In this paper, we report on the application of acoustography for the NDE of hybrid armor structures. Acoustography differs from conventional ultrasonic testing in that test objects are inspected in full field, analogously to real time x-ray imaging. The approach uses a novel, super high resolution large area acousto-optic (AO) sensor, which allows image formation through simple ultrasound shadow casting, analogous to x-ray image formation. This NDE approach offers significant inspection speed advantage over conventional point-by-point ultrasonic scanning procedures and is well-suited for high volume production. We will report initial results on a number of hybrid armor plate specimens employing composite materials that are being investigated by the US Army. Acoustography NDE results will also be verified using other complimentary NDE methods.

• OSTI ID: 21511602
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Vol. 1335, Issue 1; Conference: Review of progress in quantitative nondestructive evaluation, San Diego, CA (United States), 18-23 Jul 2010; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3592047; (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
ARMOR
COMPOSITE MATERIALS
IMAGE PROCESSING
IMAGES
INSPECTION
MANUFACTURING
NONDESTRUCTIVE TESTING
RESOLUTION
SAFETY
SLOWING-DOWN
TESTING
ULTRASONIC TESTING
VELOCITY
X RADIATION
ACOUSTIC TESTING
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
IONIZING RADIATIONS
MATERIALS
MATERIALS TESTING
PROCESSING
RADIATIONS