EVALUATION OF DIGITAL TOMOSYNTHESIS FOR IN-LINE IMAGING OF CARBON FIBRE-REINFORCED COMPOSITES

Conventional XCT, while effective at mapping damage or manufacturing defects in CFRP composites is impractical for regular quality control (QC) in FRP production lines or in-service. Ultrasonic scanning is cheaper and easier to apply but harder to interpret. This paper investigates Digital Tomosynthesis as a potential in-process quality control tool by comparing with the well-known X-ray Computed Tomography. To that end, notched CFRP laminates subjected to 88-97% UTS are used for comparing the two imaging techniques. DT is a relatively inexpensive technology but acquires low-resolution images at much higher rates over wider areas in comparison to XCT. In this work, Preliminary investigation shows that DT captures major defects over the entire sample while missing out fine cracks, in comparison to XCT. This demonstrates the suitability of DT for in-process inspection of key manufacturing defects such as voids. The current industry gold standard, ultrasonic C Scan can only be used at the end of the production process. The output from DT can be made more effective with improvements in reconstruction algorithms and optimized sample thickness and scanning voltage.