Nondestructive Evaluation of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites Using Reflective Terahertz Imaging

Jin Zhang; Wei Li; Hong-Liang Cui; Changcheng Shi; Xiaohui Han; Yuting Ma; Jiandong Chen; Tianying Chang; Dongshan Wei; Yumin Zhang; Yufeng Zhou

doi:10.3390/s16060875

Nondestructive Evaluation of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites Using Reflective Terahertz Imaging

Sensors (Basel). 2016 Jun 14;16(6):875. doi: 10.3390/s16060875.

Authors

Jin Zhang¹, Wei Li², Hong-Liang Cui^{3

4}, Changcheng Shi⁵, Xiaohui Han⁶, Yuting Ma⁷, Jiandong Chen⁸, Tianying Chang^{9

10}, Dongshan Wei¹¹, Yumin Zhang¹², Yufeng Zhou¹³

Affiliations

¹ College of Instrumentation and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130061, China. zhangjin0109@jlu.edu.cn.
² Research Center for Terahertz Technology, Key Laboratory of Multi-scale Manufacturing Technology, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing 400714, China. liwei@cigit.ac.cn.
³ College of Instrumentation and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130061, China. hcui@jlu.edu.cn.
⁴ Research Center for Terahertz Technology, Key Laboratory of Multi-scale Manufacturing Technology, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing 400714, China. hcui@jlu.edu.cn.
⁵ Research Center for Terahertz Technology, Key Laboratory of Multi-scale Manufacturing Technology, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing 400714, China. ccshi@cigit.ac.cn.
⁶ College of Instrumentation and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130061, China. hanxiaoh52@163.com.
⁷ College of Instrumentation and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130061, China. mayuting1992@foxmail.com.
⁸ College of Instrumentation and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130061, China. chenjd13@mails.jlu.edu.cn.
⁹ College of Instrumentation and Electrical Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130061, China. changtianying@hotmail.com.
¹⁰ Research Center for Terahertz Technology, Key Laboratory of Multi-scale Manufacturing Technology, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing 400714, China. changtianying@hotmail.com.
¹¹ Research Center for Terahertz Technology, Key Laboratory of Multi-scale Manufacturing Technology, Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chongqing 400714, China. dswei@cigit.ac.cn.
¹² National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Advanced Composites in Special Environments, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China. zhym@hit.edu.cn.
¹³ National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Advanced Composites in Special Environments, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150080, China. zhouyf@hit.edu.cn.

Abstract

Terahertz (THz) time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) imaging is considered a nondestructive evaluation method for composite materials used for examining various defects of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites and fire-retardant coatings in the reflective imaging modality. We demonstrate that hidden defects simulated by Teflon artificial inserts are imaged clearly in the perpendicular polarization mode. The THz TDS technique is also used to measure the thickness of thin fire-retardant coatings on CFRP composites with a typical accuracy of about 10 micrometers. In addition, coating debonding is successfully imaged based on the time-delay difference of the time-domain waveforms between closely adhered and debonded sample locations.

Keywords: carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites; coating debonding; fire-retardant coatings; nondestructive evaluation; terahertz time-domain spectroscopy imaging.