Detection of internal cracks in rubber composite structures using an impact acoustic modality

Q. Shen, T. R. Kurfess, M. Omar, F. Gramling

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the use of impact acoustic signals to non-intrusively inspect rubber composite structures for the presence of internal cracks, such as those found in an automobile tyre. Theoretical contact dynamic models for both integral and defective rubber structures are developed based on Hertz's impact model, further modified for rubber composite materials. The model generates the prediction of major impact dynamic quantities, namely the maximum impact force, impact duration and contact deformation; such parameters are also theoretically proven to be correlated with the presence of internal cracks. The tyre structures are simplified into cubic rubber blocks, to mitigate complexity for analytical modelling. Both impact force and impact sound signals are measured experimentally, and extraction of useful features from both signals for defect identification is achieved. The impact force produces two direct measurements of theoretical impact dynamic quantities. A good correlation between these experimental discriminators and the theoretical dynamic quantities provide validation for the contact dynamics models. Defect discriminators extracted from the impact sound are dependent on both time- and frequency-domain analyses. All the discriminators are closely connected with the theoretical dynamic quantities and experimentally verified as good indicators of internal cracks in rubber composite structures.

Original languageBritish English
Pages (from-to)29-51
Number of pages23
JournalNondestructive Testing and Evaluation
Volume29
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2 Jan 2014

Keywords

  • Contact dynamics model
  • Defect identification
  • Impact acoustic method
  • Rubber composite structure

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