Comparison of Ultrasonic Non-Contact Air-Coupled Techniques for Characterization of Impact-Type Defects in Pultruded GFRP Composites

This article compares different air-coupled ultrasonic testing methods to characterize impact-type defects in a pultruded quasi-isotropic glass fiber-reinforced plastic (GFRP) composite plate. Using the air-coupled transducers, comparisons among three methods were performed, namely, bulk-wave through transmission, single-side access using guided waves, and ultrasonic-guided wave tomography. The air coupled through transmission technique can determine the size and shape of impact-type defects with a higher resolution, but with the consequence of time consumption and, more importantly, the necessity of access to both sides of the sample. The guided wave technique on the other hand, allows a single-side inspection and is relatively fast. It can be used to determine the size of the defect using ultrasonic B-scan, but the exact shape of the defect will be compromised. Thus, in this article, to determine the shape of the defect, application of the parallel beam tomographic reconstruction technique using guided Lamb waves is demonstrated. Furthermore, a numerical finite element simulation was performed to study the effects of guided wave propagation in the composite sample and interaction with the internal defect. Lastly, the results from the experiments of different techniques were compared according to possibilities of defect sizing and determination of its shape.