NDT Techniques to Investigate Fracture in Continuous Fiber Reinforced Composite Structures-A Review

Abstract

With wide increase in applications of continuous fiber reinforced composite structures in various fields such as automotive, marine, aero space, civil...etc; the failure of these structures under various modes of fracture has become key area of interest to many researchers. Crack position, crack growth and crack length are some of the vital fracture parameters which need to be identified at an early stage to prevent catastrophic failure especially under cyclic loading. Non Destructive testing techniques are rapidly replacing the conventional testing methods due to their high precision, reliability, repeatability and comparatively low cost of testing in long run. This paper reviews various non destructive testing techniques that have been developed during the recent past.