Browsing by Author "Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente"
Now showing 1 - 15 of 15
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Open Access A complementary fusion-based multimodal non-destructive testing and evaluation using phased-array ultrasonic and pulsed thermography on a composite structure(MDPI , 2024-07-11) Torbali, Muhammet E; Zolotas, Argyrios; Avdelidis, Nicolas P; Alhammad, Muflih; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Maldague, Xavier PCombinative methodologies have the potential to address the drawbacks of unimodal non-destructive testing and evaluation (NDT & E) when inspecting multilayer structures. The aim of this study is to investigate the integration of information gathered via phased-array ultrasonic testing (PAUT) and pulsed thermography (PT), addressing the challenges posed by surface-level anomalies in PAUT and the limited deep penetration in PT. A center-of-mass-based registration method was proposed to align shapeless inspection results in consecutive insertions. Subsequently, the aligned inspection images were merged using complementary techniques, including maximum, weighted-averaging, depth-driven combination (DDC), and wavelet decomposition. The results indicated that although individual inspections may have lower mean absolute error (MAE) ratings than fused images, the use of complementary fusion improved defect identification in the total number of detections across numerous layers of the structure. Detection errors are analyzed, and a tendency to overestimate defect sizes is revealed with individual inspection methods. This study concludes that complementary fusion provides a more comprehensive understanding of overall defect detection throughout the thickness, highlighting the importance of leveraging multiple modalities for improved inspection outcomes in structural analysis.Item Open Access Application of NDT thermographic imaging of aerospace structures(Elsevier, 2019-02-13) Deane, Shakeb; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Zhang, Hai; Yazdani Nezhad, Hamed; Williamson, Alex A.; Mackley, Tim; Davis, Maxwell J.; Maldague, Xavier P. V.; Tsourdos, AntoniosThis work aims to address the effectiveness and challenges of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) inspection and improve the detection of defects without causing damage to the material or operator. It focuses on two types of NDT methods; pulsed thermography and vibrothermography. The paper also explores the possibility of performing automated aerial inspection using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) provided with a thermographic imaging system. The concept of active thermography is discussed for inspecting aircraft CFRP panels along with the proposal for performing aerial inspection using the UAV for real time inspection. Static NDT results and the further UAV research indicate that the UAV inspection approach could significantly reduce the inspection time, cost, and workload, whilst potentially increasing the probability of detection.Item Open Access Automated impact damage detection technique for composites based on thermographic image processing and machine learning classification(MDPI, 2022-11-22) Alhammad, Muflih; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Torbali, Muhammet E.; Genest, Marc; Zhang, Hai; Zolotas, Argyrios; Maldgue, Xavier P. V.Composite materials are one of the primary structural components in most current transportation applications, such as the aerospace industry. Composite material diagnostics is a promising area in the fight against structural damage in aircraft and spaceships. Detection and diagnostic technologies often provide analysts with a valuable and rapid mechanism to monitor the health and safety of composite materials. Although many attempts have been made to develop damage detection techniques and make operations more efficient, there is still a need to develop/improve existing methods. Pulsed thermography (PT) technology was used in this study to obtain healthy and defective data sets from custom-designed composite samples having similar dimensions but different thicknesses (1.6 and 3.8). Ten carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) panels were tested. The samples were subjected to impact damage of various energy levels, ranging from 4 to 12 J. Two different methods have been applied to detect and classify the damage to the composite structures. The first applied method is the statistical analysis, where seven different statistical criteria have been calculated. The final results have proved the possibility of detecting the damaged area in most cases. However, for a more accurate detection technique, a machine learning method was applied to thermal images; specifically, the Cube Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm was selected. The prediction accuracy of the proposed classification models was calculated within a confusion matrix based on the dataset patterns representing the healthy and defective areas. The classification results ranged from 78.7% to 93.5%, and these promising results are paving the way to develop an automated model to efficiently evaluate the damage to composite materials based on the non-distractive testing (NDT) technique.Item Open Access Autonomous systems imaging of aerospace structures(Unknown, 2018-12-31) Deane, Shakeb; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Zhang, Hai; Yazdani Nezhad, Hamed; Williamson, Alex A.; Maldague, Xavier P. V.; Tsourdos, AntoniosAircraft manufacturers are constantly improving their aircraft ensuring they are more cost-efficient to do this the weight of the aircraft needs to be reduced, which results in less fuel required to power the aircraft. This has led to an increased use of composite materials within an aircraft. Carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) composite is used in industries where high strength and rigidity are required in relation to weight. e.g. in aviation – transport. The fibre-reinforced matrix systems are extremely strong (i.e. have excellent mechanical properties and high resistance to corrosion). However, because of the nature of the CFRP, it does not dint or bend, as aluminium would do when damaged, it makes it difficult to locate structural damage, especially subsurface. Non Destructive Testing (NDT) is a wide group of analysis techniques used to evaluate the properties of a material, component or system without causing damage to the operator or material. Active Thermography is one of the NDT risk-free methods used successfully in the evaluation of composite materials. This approach has the ability to provide both qualitative and quantitative information about hidden defects or features in a composite structure. Aircraft has to undergo routine maintenance – inspection to check for any critical damage and thus to ensure its safety. This work aims to address the challenge of NDT automated inspection and improve the defects’ detection by performing automated aerial inspection using a Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) thermographic imaging system. The concept of active thermography is discussed and presented in the inspection of aircraft’s CFRP panels along with the mission planning for aerial inspection using the UAV for real time inspection. Results indicate that this inspection approach could significantly reduce the inspection time, cost, and workload, whilst potentially increasing the probability of detection.Item Open Access Comparison of cooled and uncooled IR sensors by means of signal-to-noise ratio for NDT diagnostics of aerospace grade composites(MDPI, 2020-06-15) Shakeb, Deane; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Zhang, Hai; Nezhad, Hamed Yazdani; Williamson, Alex A.; Mackley, Tim; Maldague, Xavier P. V.; Tsourdos, Antonios; Nooralishahi, ParhamThis work aims to address the effectiveness and challenges of non-destructive testing (NDT) by active infrared thermography (IRT) for the inspection of aerospace-grade composite samples and seeks to compare uncooled and cooled thermal cameras using the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as a performance parameter. It focuses on locating impact damages and optimising the results using several signal processing techniques. The work successfully compares both types of cameras using seven different SNR definitions, to understand if a lower-resolution uncooled IR camera can achieve an acceptable NDT standard. Due to most uncooled cameras being small, lightweight, and cheap, they are more accessible to use on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The concept of using a UAV for NDT on a composite wing is explored, and the UAV is also tracked using a localisation system to observe the exact movement in millimetres and how it affects the thermal data. It was observed that an NDT UAV can access difficult areas and, therefore, can be suggested for significant reduction of time and cost.Item Open Access Data supporting: 'Development of a thermal excitation source used in an active thermographic UAV platform'(Cranfield University, 2022-08-31 16:49) Deane, Shakeb; Tsourdos, Antonios; Avdelidis, Nico; Zolotas, Argyrios; P. V. Maldague, Xavier; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Genest, Marc; Pant, Shashank; Williamson, Alex; Withers, Stephen; Ahmadi, MohammadaliThis work aims to address the effectivenessand challenges of using active infrared thermography (IRT) on-board an unmannedaerial vehicle (UAV) platform. The work seeks to assess the performance ofsmall low powered forms of excitation which are suitable for activethermography and the ability to locate subsurface defects on composites. Anexcitation source in the form of multiple 250 W lamps are mounted onto a UAVand are solely battery powered with a remote trigger to power cycle them.Multiple experiments address the interference from the UAV whilst performing anactive IRT inspection. The optimal distances and time required for a UAV inspection using IRT is calculated. Multiple signal processing techniques areused to analyse the composites which helps locate the sub-surface defects. It was observedthat a UAV can successfully carry the required sensors and equipment for anActive thermographic NDT inspection which can provide access to difficult areas. Most active thermographic inspection equipment is large, heavy, and expensive. Furthermore, using such equipment for inspection of complexstructures is time-consuming. For example, a cherry picker would be required toinspect the tail of an aircraft. This solution looks to assist engineersinspecting complex composite structures and could potentially significantly reduce the time and cost of a routine inspection.Item Open Access Development of a thermal excitation source used in an active thermographic UAV platform(Taylor & Francis, 2022-06-03) Deane, Shakeb; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Williamson, Alex A.; Withers, Stephen; Zolotas, Argyrios; Maldague, Xavier P. V.; Ahmadi, Mohammad; Pant, Shashank; Genest, Marc; Rabearivelo, Hobivola A.; Tsourdos, AntoniosThis work aims to address the effectiveness and challenges of using active infrared thermography (IRT) onboard an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform. The work seeks to assess the performance of small low-powered forms of excitation which are suitable for active thermography and the ability to locate subsurface defects on composites. An excitation source in multiple 250 W lamps is mounted onto a UAV and is solely battery powered with a remote trigger to power cycle them. Multiple experiments address the interference from the UAV whilst performing an active IRT inspection. The optimal distances and time required for a UAV inspection using IRT are calculated. Multiple signal processing techniques are used to analyse the composites which help locate the sub-surface defects. It was observed that a UAV can successfully carry the required sensors and equipment for an Active thermographic NDT inspection which can provide access to difficult areas. Most active thermographic inspection equipment is large, heavy, and expensive. Furthermore, using such equipment for the inspection of complex structures is time-consuming. For example, a cherry picker would be required to inspect the tail of an aircraft. This solution looks to assist engineers in inspecting complex composite structures and could potentially significantly reduce the time and cost of a routine inspection.Item Open Access Diagnosis of composite materials in aircraft applications: towards a UAV active thermography inspection approach(Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), 2021-04-12) Alhammad, Muflih; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; Deane, Shakeb; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Pant, Shashank; Nooralishahi, Parham; Ahmadi, Mohammad; Genest, Marc; Zolotas, Argyrios; Zanotti Fragonara, Luca; Valdes, Julio J.; Maldague, Xavier P. V.Diagnosis and prognosis of failures for aircrafts’ integrity are some of the most important regular functionalities in complex and safety-critical aircraft structures. Further, development of failure diagnostic tools such as Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) techniques, in particular, for aircraft composite materials, has been seen as a subject of intensive research over the last decades. The need for diagnostic and prognostic tools for composite materials in aircraft applications rises and draws increasing attention. Yet, there is still an ongoing need for developing new failure diagnostic tools to respond to the rapid industrial development and complex machine design. Such tools will ease the early detection and isolation of developing defects and the prediction of damages propagation; thus allowing for early implementation of preventive maintenance and serve as a countermeasure to the potential of catastrophic failure. This paper provides a brief literature review of recent research on failure diagnosis of composite materials with an emphasis on the use of active thermography techniques in the aerospace industry. Furthermore, as the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for the remote inspection of large and/or difficult access areas has significantly grown in the last few years thanks to their flexibility of flight and to the possibility to carry one or several measuring sensors, the aim to use a UAV active thermography system for the inspection of large composite aeronautical structures in a continuous dynamic mode is proposed.Item Open Access Drone-based non-destructive inspection of industrial sites: a review and case studies(MDPI, 2021-09-29) Nooralishahi, Parham; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Deane, Shakeb; López, Fernando; Pant, Shashank; Genest, Marc; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; Maldague, Xavier P. V.Using aerial platforms for Non-Destructive Inspection (NDI) of large and complex structures is a growing field of interest in various industries. Infrastructures such as: buildings, bridges, oil and gas, etc. refineries require regular and extensive inspections. The inspection reports are used to plan and perform required maintenance, ensuring their structural health and the safety of the workers. However, performing these inspections can be challenging due to the size of the facility, the lack of easy access, the health risks for the inspectors, or several other reasons, which has convinced companies to invest more in drones as an alternative solution to overcome these challenges. The autonomous nature of drones can assist companies in reducing inspection time and cost. Moreover, the employment of drones can lower the number of required personnel for inspection and can increase personnel safety. Finally, drones can provide a safe and reliable solution for inspecting hard-to-reach or hazardous areas. Despite the recent developments in drone-based NDI to reliably detect defects, several limitations and challenges still need to be addressed. In this paper, a brief review of the history of unmanned aerial vehicles, along with a comprehensive review of studies focused on UAV-based NDI of industrial and commercial facilities, are provided. Moreover, the benefits of using drones in inspections as an alternative to conventional methods are discussed, along with the challenges and open problems of employing drones in industrial inspections, are explored. Finally, some of our case studies conducted in different industrial fields in the field of Non-Destructive Inspection are presented.Item Open Access Enhanced infrared image processing for impacted carbon/glass fiber-reinforced composite evaluation(MDPI, 2017-12-26) Zhang, Hai; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; Osman, Ahmad; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Sfarra, Stefano; Fernandes, Henrique; Matikas, Theodore E.; Maldague, Xavier P. V.In this paper, an infrared pre-processing modality is presented. Different from a signal smoothing modality which only uses a polynomial fitting as the pre-processing method, the presented modality instead takes into account the low-order derivatives to pre-process the raw thermal data prior to applying the advanced post-processing techniques such as principal component thermography and pulsed phase thermography. Different cases were studied involving several defects in CFRPs and GFRPs for pulsed thermography and vibrothermography. Ultrasonic testing and signal-to-noise ratio analysis are used for the validation of the thermographic results. Finally, a verification that the presented modality can enhance the thermal image performance effectively is provided.Item Open Access Evaluation and selection of video stabilization techniques for UAV-based active infrared thermography application(MDPI, 2021-02-25) Pant, Shashank; Nooralishahi, Parham; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Genest, Marc; Deane, Shakeb; Valdes, Julio J.; Zolotas, Argyrios; Maldague, Xavier P. V.nmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) that can fly around an aircraft carrying several sensors, e.g., thermal and optical cameras, to inspect the parts of interest without removing them can have significant impact in reducing inspection time and cost. One of the main challenges in the UAV based active InfraRed Thermography (IRT) inspection is the UAV’s unexpected motions. Since active thermography is mainly concerned with the analysis of thermal sequences, unexpected motions can disturb the thermal profiling and cause data misinterpretation especially for providing an automated process pipeline of such inspections. Additionally, in the scenarios where post-analysis is intended to be applied by an inspector, the UAV’s unexpected motions can increase the risk of human error, data misinterpretation, and incorrect characterization of possible defects. Therefore, post-processing is required to minimize/eliminate such undesired motions using digital video stabilization techniques. There are number of video stabilization algorithms that are readily available; however, selecting the best suited one is also challenging. Therefore, this paper evaluates video stabilization algorithms to minimize/mitigate undesired UAV motion and proposes a simple method to find the best suited stabilization algorithm as a fundamental first step towards a fully operational UAV-IRT inspection system.Item Open Access Fusion insights from ultrasonic and thermographic inspections for impact damage analysis(AIAA, 2023-06-08) Torbali, M. Ebubekir; Alhammad, Muflih; Zolotas, Argyrios; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Maldague, XavierLow energy impact damage in composite materials may be more concerning than it appears visually, often requiring a detailed examination for accurate assessment to ensure safe and sustainable operation. Non-destructive testing (NDT) methods provide such inspection techniques, and in this paper, NDT-based fusion is explored for enhanced identification of defect size and location compared to indepdently using individual NDT methods separately. Three Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) specimens are examined, each with an impact damage of a given energy level, using pulsed thermography (PT) and phased array (PA) ultrasonic methods. Following the extraction of binary defect shapes from source images, a decision-level fusion approach is performed. The results indicate that combining ultrasonic and infrared thermography (IRT) inspections for CFRP composite materials is promising to achieve enhanced and improved detection traceability.Item Open Access Impact modelling and a posteriori non-destructive evaluation of homogeneous particleboards of sugarcane bagasse(2018-01-12) Zhang, Hai; Sfarra, Stefano; Sarasini, Fabrizio; Fiorelli, Juliano; Peeters, Jeroen; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; de Lucca Sartori, Diogo; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Perilli, Stefano; Mokhtari, Yacine; Tirillò, Jacopo; Maldague, Xavier P. V.With a view to gaining an in-depth assessment of the response of particleboards (PBs) to different in-service loading conditions, samples of high-density homogeneous PBs of sugarcane bagasse and castor oil polyurethane resin were manufactured and subjected to low velocity impacts using an instrumented drop weight impact tower and four different energy levels, namely 5, 10, 20 and 30 J. The prediction of the damage modes was assessed using Comsol Multiphysics ® . ®. In particular, the random distribution of the fibres and their lengths were reproduced through a robust model. The experimentally obtained dent depths due to the impactor were compared with the ones numerically simulated showing good agreement. The post-impact damage was evaluated by a simultaneous system of image acquisitions coming from two different sensors. In particular, thermograms were recorded during the heating up and cooling down phases, while the specklegrams were gathered one at room temperature (as reference) and the remaining during the cooling down phase. On one hand, the specklegrams were processed via a new software package named Ncorr v.1.2, which is an open-source subset-based 2D digital image correlation (DIC) package that combines modern DIC algorithms proposed in the literature with additional enhancements. On the other hand, the thermographic results linked to a square pulse were compared with those coming from the laser line thermography technique that heats a line-region on the surface of the sample instead of a spot. Surprisingly, both the vibrothermography and the line scanning thermography methods coupled with a robotized system show substantial advantages in the defect detection around the impacted zone.Item Open Access Optical and mechanical excitation thermography for impact response in basalt-carbon hybrid fiber-reinforced composite laminates(IEEE, 2017-08-24) Zhang, Hai; Sfarra, Stefano; Sarasini, Fabrizio; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Perilli, Stefano; Fernandes, Henrique; Duan, Yuxia; Peeters, Jeroen; Avdelidis, Nicolas Peter; Maldague, Xavier P. V.In this paper, optical and mechanical excitation thermography were used to investigate basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP), carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) and basalt-carbon fiber hybrid specimens subjected to impact loading. Interestingly, two different hybrid structures including sandwich-like and intercalated stacking sequence were used. Pulsed phase thermography (PPT), principal component thermography (PCT) and partial least squares thermography (PLST) were used to process the thermographic data. X-ray computed tomography (CT) was used for validation. In addition, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) analysis was used as a means of quantitatively comparing the thermographic results. Of particular interest, the depth information linked to Loadings in PLST was estimated for the first time. Finally, a reference was provided for taking advantage of different hybrids in view of special industrial applications.Item Open Access Pulsed and Vibro Thermographic results(Cranfield University, 2020-01-20 08:58) Deane, Shakeb; Ibarra-Castanedo, Clemente; Avdelidis, Nico; Tsourdos, Antonios; Zhang, Hai; P. V. Maldague, Xavier; Williamson, Alex; MacKley, Timothy; Yazdani Nezhad, Hamed; Davis, MaxwellThe CFRP specimens were manufactured and purposely damaged via impact, in the Cranfield composite centre. Sample A4 was manufactured via manual woven, and the other twosamples were unidirectional. The composites consist of laying up pre-pregpiles to form a laminate stack, the material is then autoclave processed at 180oCand 7 bars for a few hours suitable for the thermoset resin cure, this isaccording to the supplier’s specification (Hexcel). There were three specimens,one that was undamaged, and two that had been impacted with a force of 15 and20 J of energy. The infrared camera used in this experiment was a FLIR Phoenix,with inSb sensor material, 3-5 mm, 640x512 pixels and allows data acquisitionat 50Hz. Thesurface of the specimens were positioned parallel to the camera lens. The data was acquired for 40 seconds with a 1.5millisecond integration time, that includes 10 frames before the flashes, plus1990 frames during cooling a total of 2000 frames where recorded. The softwareused to acquire the data was RDac from FLIR. For signal processing MATLAB andIr_view from Visiooimage inc were employed. Two advanced processing techniqueswere used; PCT (principal component thermography) and PPT (pulsed phasethermography).