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Laminated composites materials are mostly used in dynamically loaded structures. The design of these structures with finite element packages is focused on vibrations, elastic deformations and failure control. Damping is often neglected because of its assumed secondary importance and also because of dearth of information on relevant material properties. This trend is prone to change as it is now realised that damping plays an increasingly important role in vibration comfort, noise radiation and crash simulations. This paper shows in a first step how to identify the orthotropic elastic and damping properties of single layer fibre-reinforced composite material sheets using a new extended version of the Resonalyser procedure. The procedure is based on the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle and uses a mixed numerical experimental method. In a subsequent step, the complex laminate stiffness values are computed using the identified single layer material properties. To validate this approach, the modal damping ratios of arbitrary laminated plates of different materials at several resonance frequencies are predicted and experimentally verified.

A novel method is introduced for the measurement of a 3D strain field by exploiting the interaction between ultrasound waves and geometrical characteristics of the insonified specimen. First, the response of obliquely incident harmonic waves to a deterministic surface roughness is utilized. Analysis of backscattered amplitudes in Bragg diffraction geometry then yields a measure for the in-plane strain field by mapping any shift in angular dependency. Secondly, the analysis of the reflection characteristics of normal incident pulsed waves in frequency domain provides a measure of the out-of-plane normal strain field component, simply by tracking any change in the stimulation condition for a thickness resonance. As such, the developed ultrasonic strain gauge yields an absolute, contactless and single-sided mapping of a local 3D strain field, in which both sample preparation and alignment procedure are needless. Results are presented for cold-rolled DC06 steel samples onto which skin passing of the work rolls is applied. The samples have been mechanically loaded, introducing plastic strain levels ranging from 2 % up to 35 %. The ultrasonically measured strains have been validated with various other strain measurement techniques, including manual micrometer, longitudinal and transverse mechanical extensometer and optical mono- and stereovision digital image correlation. Good agreement has been obtained between the ultrasonically determined strain values and the results of the conventional methods. As the ultrasonic strain gauge provides all three normal strain field components, it has been employed for the extraction of Lankford ratios at different applied longitudinal plastic strain levels, revealing a strain dependent plastic anisotropy of the investigated DC06 steel sheet.

Already in the early 1980's, it has been conjectured that the pulsed ultrasonic polar scan (P-UPS) provides a unique fingerprint of the underlying mechanical elasticity tensor at the insonified material spot. Until now, that premise has not been thoroughly investigated, nor validated, despite the opportunities this would create for NDT and materials science in general. In this paper, we report on the first-ever implementation of an inverse modeling technique on the basis of a genetic optimization scheme in order to extract quantita- tive information from a P-UPS. We validate the optimization approach for synthetic data, and apply it to experimentally obtained polar scans for annealed aluminum, cold rolled DC-06 steel as well as for carbon fiber reinforced plastics. The investigated samples are plate-like and do not require specific preparation. The inverted material characteristics show good agreement with literature, micro-mechanical models as well as with results obtained through conventional testing procedures.

This article describes an inverse method for the identification of the plastic behavior of aluminum plates subjected to sudden blast loads. The method uses full-field optical measurements taken during the first milliseconds of a free air explosion and the finite element method for the numerical prediction of the blast response. The identification is based on a damped least-squares solution according to the Levenberg–Marquardt formulation. Three different rate-dependent plasticity models are examined. First, a combined model based on linear strain hardening and the strain rate term of the Cowper–Symonds model, secondly, the Johnson–Cook model and finally, a combined model based on a bi-exponential relation for the strain hardening term and the strain rate term of the Cowper–Symonds model. A validation of the method and its sensitivity to measurement uncertainties is first provided according to virtual measurements generated with the finite element method. Next, the plastic behavior of aluminum is identified using measurements from real free air explosions obtained from a controlled detonation of C4. The results show that inverse methods can be successfully applied for the identification of the plastic behavior of metals subjected to blast waves. In addition, the material parameters identified with inverse methods enable the numerical prediction of the material’s response with increased accuracy.

Local stiffness of Euler–Bernoulli beams can be identified by dividing the bending moment of a deformed beam by the local curvature. Curvature and moment distributions can be derived from the modal shape of a beam vibrating at resonance. In this article, the modal shape of test beams is measured by both scanning laser vibrometry (SLV) and shearography. Shearography is an interferometric optical method that produces full-field displacement gradients of the inspected surface. Curvature can be obtained by two steps of derivation of the modal amplitude (in the case of SLV) or one step of derivation of the modal shape slope (in the case of shearography). Three specially prepared aluminium beams with a known stiffness distribution are used for the validation of both techniques. The uncertainty of the identified stiffness distributions with both techniques is compared and related to their signal-to-noise ratios. A strength and weakness overview at the end of the article reveals that the shearography is the technique that shows the most advantages.

Crack monitoring is crucial for safety, cost-effective design and maintenance of concrete structures. Most stand-alone crack monitoring techniques have some limitations in characterizing concrete cracking. Therefore, this article focuses on a combined use of acoustic emission and digital image correlation techniques for more effective monitoring of cracks in concrete structures at laboratory standard tests level. The combined methodology provides complimentary information from ‘the ear’ aided by the acoustic emission and from ‘the eye’ aided by the digital image correlation. This complimentary approach is applied herein to characterize the mechanical and damage behaviour of prestressed concrete sleepers that plays an important role in the structural mechanism of the railway structure. The obtained acoustic emission datasets were post-processed, in combination with digital image correlation and mechanical information, using parametric analyses to investigate progressive failure of the prestressed concrete sleepers under three-point bending at the rail seat and at the centre section. Digital image correlation clearly identified critical damage areas as a function of loading periods, while acoustic emission was capable of monitoring the damage process and revealed changes in the overall behaviour. It is demonstrated that the combined use of digital image correlation and acoustic emission can enhance practical applications and improve the understanding of concrete cracking behaviour.

Conventionally, the mechanical strength of clinched connections is determined by a single shear lap test and/or a pull-out test. However, in most practical applications a combination of shear and pull-out is exerted on the clinched joint. This paper deals with the development of an Arcan-like device which enables to introduce various shear/tensile ratios in a clinched assembly. An experimental survey of the multi-axial behaviour of a non-cutting single-stroke round clinched connection of two DC05 sheets, which is mild deep drawing steel, is conducted with this modified Arcan setup. These experimental results are used to check the validity of numerical models that predict the strength under multi-axial loading. Since the forming of a clinch is a fairly complex sheet metal operation, a good knowledge of the plastic material properties and the frictional behaviour is of the utmost importance to perform a sufficiently accurate FEA simulation. The impact of these factors on the multi-axial loading behaviour of the DC05–DC05 connection is investigated. ispartof: International Journal of Material Forming vol:6 issue:4 pages:437-451 status: published

In this international permeability benchmark exercise, in-plane permeability data for two reinforcement fabrics, obtained using a total of 16 different experimental procedures, were compared. Although, for each procedure, the results appear consistent, different procedures result in a scatter of up to one order of magnitude in principal permeability values for each fabric at any given fibre volume fraction. The ratio of the principal permeability values varies by factors of up to 2. While experimental uncertainties and variability of the specimens affect the scatter in results for any single series of experiments, it is suspected that the main source of scatter in results from different procedures is related to human factors. Aiming at standardisation of measurement methods and interchangeability of results, "good practice" guidelines will be formulated in order to eliminate sources of scatter. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The most common way to evaluate the stress–strain relation of sheet metal is by performing standard tensile tests. However, those tests only allow the identification of the hardening behaviour up to the point of maximum uniform elongation, at least when using standard measuring equipment and simple analytical formulas to derive the relation between force and stress, and, elongation and strain. Usually the hardening behaviour beyond this point is estimated by extrapolation of the hardening behaviour before the point of maximum uniform elongation. Such procedure may yield very different results, depending on the hardening law which is fitted to the available experimental data. Other methods which deal with the problem of extended yield curve identification have been proposed and the most applied among them are finite-element based inverse approaches. This paper presents an alternative method to identify the post-necking hardening behaviour of sheet metal without using a finite element model. The key point in the presented method is the minimization of the discrepancy between the internal and external work in the necking zone during a tensile test. The main focus of this paper is on the presentation of the method, the underlying assumptions and the experimental validation. In addition, the method was applied to identify two common hardening laws for DC05, which is a mild deep drawing steel, using experimental data from the pre- and post-necking region.

Clinching is a mechanical joining technique which involves severe local plastic deformation of two or more sheet metal parts resulting in a permanent mechanical interlock or joint. The required forming load and energy can be determined with the aid of the finite element method. However, a good knowledge of the elasto-plastic properties is of utmost importance to perform a sufficiently accurate simulation. This paper presents two alternative material tests to identify the hardening behaviour of sheet metal beyond the point of maximum uniform elongation. In addition, the material tests were applied to DC05 and the identified material behaviour is evaluated through the prediction of the forming load during clinching.

The aim of this article is to study the accuracy of finite element simulations in predicting the tool force occurring during the single point incremental forming (SPIF) process. The forming of two cones in soft aluminum was studied with two finite element (FE) codes and several constitutive laws (an elastic---plastic law coupled with various hardening models). The parameters of these laws were identified using several combinations of a tensile test, shear tests, and an inverse modeling approach taking into account a test similar to the incremental forming process. Comparisons between measured and predicted force values are performed. This article shows that three factors have an influence on force prediction: the type of finite element, the constitutive law and the identification procedure for the material parameters. In addition, it confirms that a detailed description of the behavior occurring across the thickness of the metal sheet is crucial for an accurate force prediction by FE simulations, even though a simple analytical formula could provide an otherwise acceptable answer.

Clinching, commonly referred to as press-joining, is a mechanical joining technique which involves severe local plastic deformation of two or more sheet metal parts resulting in a permanent mechanical interlock or joint. This interlock is achieved by using simple tools like a die, a punch and a blank holder. Since no additional elements are used, the strength of the clinched connection is entirely determined by the clinch geometry, and, consequently, by the geometry of die and punch. As a result, for each combination of material and sheet thickness an optimal geometry of the tools can be derived. This can be done either through extensive experimental testing or, more cost-effectively, with the aid of numerical simulations. However, for these results to be useful they have to be able to reproduce the experimental strength of the connection. In this paper we investigate the possibility of predicting the shear and pull-out strength of a clinched sheet metal assembly using FEA. Numerical difficulties associated with these simulations and the preceding forming operation are discussed. A comparison between experimental data and simulation is provided.

This paper describes the identification of hardening parameters of DC05 sheet metal and contact friction coefficients using a multi-layered upsetting test (MLUT), the modified two specimen method (MTSM) and a finite element based inverse method. The MTSM is adopted in order to identify the friction coefficient between the tools and the stacked circular specimens which are cut from the base material by spark erosion. Next, the hardening behaviour is identified inversely by combining the results of a MLUT and finite element simulations of the test setup. Finally, the results are compared with standard tensile tests and it is shown that the MLUT is a viable alternative for the identification of the local hardening behaviour of sheet metal where standard test specimens cannot be prepared due to size limitations of the specimen.

The resonant-based identification of the in-plane elastic properties of orthotropic materials implies the estimation of four principal elastic parameters: E 1 , E 2 , G 12 , and ν 12 . The two elastic moduli and the shear modulus can easily be derived from the resonant frequencies of the flexural and torsional vibration modes, respectively. The identification of the Poisson’s ratio, however, is much more challenging, since most frequencies are not sufficiently sensitive to it. The present work addresses this problem by determining the test specimen specifications that create the optimal conditions for the identification of the Poisson’s ratio. Two methods are suggested for the determination of the Poisson’s ratio of orthotropic materials: the first employs the resonant frequencies of a plate-shaped specimen, while the second uses the resonant frequencies of a set of beam-shaped specimens. Both methods are experimentally validated using a stainless steel sheet.

For simulating the injection stage of the manufacturing process of composite materials, the permeability of the textile is an important input parameter. The permeability of textiles can be determined experimentally. However, this is a time and resource consuming process and no standard procedure is yet available. In this paper, we will present a user-friendly software package to simulate the flow through a textile model and predict the permeability Results are presented for a woven fabric and two different non-crimp fabrics. The computed permeability values are compared with experimental results.

The capability to simulate the flow of resin through a porous reinforcement by FE modelling has become very important for designing RTM production processes for high-performance composite parts. The key parameter in RTM flow simulations is the fibre reinforcement permeability. The measurement of this material parameter is still not standardized and many different set-ups have been proposed. Recently, a stereolithography technique was used to produce a textile-like solid specimen with anisotropic permeability, designed as a reference for calibration and comparison of permeability measurement set-ups and for validation of numerical permeability computation software. Unlike real textiles, the permeability properties of such reference specimens do not vary from test to test. Excellent repeatability of the experiments is achieved. When used for benchmarking, any discrepancy between different measurements on this specimen must be attributed to the set-up and data processing. This paper presents the first experimental measurements of the permeability of such reference specimens, obtained with a 2D central injection rig. The measured values, with principal components of the 2D permeability tensor of 2.47 ± 0.09 × 10−9 m2 and 5.44 ± 0.22 × 10−9 m2, are in good agreement with the values predicted using numerical permeability computation software. Statistics from a series of measurements using the same set-up show that the precision of the permeability identification depends on the data processing procedure. An approach which incorporates a numerical model that is also valid after the fluid reached an edge of the reinforcement performs significantly better than the approach, based on an analytical approximation, which was used before.

Single point incremental forming (SPIF) is a promising new production technique in which a metal sheet is formed stepwise by a spherical tool. However, the technique still shows some particularities. It is observed that the final geometry of a SPIF part can deviate significantly from the programmed tool path. As illustrated in this paper, elastic springback is only to a minor extent responsible for this phenomenon. The goal of the presented paper is to illustrate the gradual emergence of unintended deviations as measured by means of a Digital Image Correlation (DIC) technique. Two CCD cameras were used to take the necessary in-process images. The mechanism of deformation in function of the forming depth is documented and discussed.

The permeability of textile reinforcements is a crucial input for the simulation of the impregnation stage of a composite material fabrication process. In this paper, we present a fast and accurate simulation method for the permeability of a textile reinforcement, based on a finite difference discretisation of the Stokes equations. Results for single layer, multi-layer and sheared models are discussed. The influence of intra-yarn flow and periodic or wall boundary conditions are considered. We compare the numerically computed permeability values with experimental data.

The purpose of this article is to develop an inverse method for adjusting the material parameters for single point incremental forming (SPIF). The main idea consists in FEM simulations of simple tests involving the SPIF specificities (the “line test”) performed on the machine used for the process itself. This approach decreases the equipment cost. It has the advantage that the material parameters are fitted for heterogeneous stress and strain fields close to the ones occurring during the actual process. A first set of material parameters, adjusted for the aluminum alloy AA3103 with classical tests (tensile and cyclic shear tests), is compared with parameters adjusted by the line test. It is shown that the chosen tests and the strain state level have an important impact on the adjusted material data and on the accuracy of the tool force prediction reached during the SPIF process.

This paper presents a mixed numerical–experimental method for the identification of the four in-plane orthotropic engineering constants of composite plate materials. A biaxial tensile test is performed on a cruciform test specimen. The heterogeneous displacement field is observed by a CCD camera and measured by a digital image correlation (DIC) technique. The measured displacement field and the subsequently computed strain field are compared with a finite element simulation of the same experiment. The four independent engineering constants are unknown parameters in the finite element model. Starting from an initial value, these parameters are updated till the computed strain field matches the experimental strain field. Two specimen geometries are used: one with a centered hole to increase the strain heterogeneity and one without a hole. It is found that the non-perforated specimen yields the most accurate results.

Conventionally, the ultrasonic polar scan (UPS) records the amplitude or time of flight in reflection or transmission using short ultrasonic pulses for a wide range of incidence angles, resulting in a unique fingerprint of the critical bulk wave angles of the material at the insonified spot. Here, we investigate the use of quasi-harmonic ultrasound (bursts) in a polar scan experiment, experimentally as well as numerically. It is shown that the nature of the fingerprint drastically changes, and reveals the positions of the leaky Lamb angles. To compare with experiments, both plane wave and bounded beam simulations have been performed based on the recursive stiffness matrix method. Whereas the plane wave computations yield a pure Lamb wave angle fingerprint, this is no longer valid for the more realistic case of a bounded beam. The experimental recordings are fully supported by the bounded beam simulations. To complement the traditional amplitude measurement, experimental and numerical investigations have been performed to record, predict and analyze the phase of the transmitted ultrasonic beam. This results in the conceptual introduction of the 'phase polar scan', exposing even more intriguing and detailed patterns. In fact, the combination of the amplitude and the phase polar scan provides the complete knowledge about the complex transmission coefficient for every possible angle of incidence. This comprehensive information will be very valuable for inverse modeling of the local elasticity tensor based on a single polar scan experiment. Finally, the polar scan method has been applied for the detection of an artificial delamination. Contrary to the pulsed UPS, the quasi-harmonic UPS (both the amplitude and phase recording) shows a superior sensitivity to the presence of the delamination.

Based on the well-known pin-on-disc test rig, a new test setup for online measuring of wear and friction behaviour of polymer matrix composites has been developed. In contrast to a traditional friction-and-wear test rig, a steel pin and composite disc are used for studying the influence of wear debris and fibre orientation. During sliding, a thin adhesive film is possibly formed on the wear track of a composite disc, consisting of wear debris that is squeezed under the steel pin and that finally smoothens onto the composite surface. By optical microscopy, it was observed that most of the debris particles originate from the edges of the wear track. The thin film deforms continuously, with large and dark wear particles observed at the edge of the wear track. A lower coefficient of friction is achieved when the particles are re-adhered to the mating surface. The film formation mechanism depends on the normal force, sliding velocity, and bulk composite structure: because pultruded composite profiles are prese...

Time consumption is the major drawback of many existing set-ups for permeability measurement. This drawback has prevented many researchers from studying the statistical distribution of experimentally obtained permeability values. To overcome this problem—while maintaining the necessary accuracy—an automated central injection rig for permeability identification called ‘PIERS set-up’ (permeability identification using electrical resistance sensors) was developed. The PIERS set-up was used to characterize two typical glass fiber reinforcements. The test results demonstrated the presence of large scatter in the identified permeability values and hence the necessity to consider a statistical distribution of permeability values. The existence of a permeability distribution implies that a small number of measurements will not be sufficient to fully characterize the material. This paper discusses the necessary number of measurements to adequately characterize the statistical distribution and investigates the origins of the observed scatter. The paper also shows that the nesting of layers during stacking and mold closing is a major source of the observed variations in permeability values.

This paper compares results of three different methods to determine the in-plane elastic properties of sheet materials. Results obtained with standard resonant beam and tensile tests are used to assess a mixed numerical–experimental technique developed to determine the in-plane elastic properties of orthotropic plates from the resonance frequencies of rectangular plate samples (the so-called ‘Resonalyser’ technique). Test materials were selected on the basis of an expected low degree of elastic anisotropy in order to put the accuracy and sensitivity of the different techniques to assess anisotropic materials to a test. Therefore, aluminium alloy and stainless steel samples were prepared from hot-rolled plates, deliberately avoiding pronounced cold-rolling textures. The differences between the results obtained with the three experimental approaches are critically evaluated. In the case of very thin plates, the existing mixed numerical–experimental Resonalyser procedure succeeded in accurately identifying the elastic material properties. A slightly adapted procedure is proposed to extend the applicability of the Resonalyser procedure to thicker plates.

Resin transfer molding (RTM) is becoming increasingly important as a production technique for FRPs. However, the design of molds that assures the production of parts with acceptable quality remains a difficult task. Simulation codes developed for design need reliable input data such as reinforcement permeability. The measurement of this material parameter is still not standardized and thus many different set-ups have been proposed. In this paper a new method will be presented that is much faster and much less operator-dependant than other set-ups. It is a 2D central injection set-up, based on the automatic detection of the flow front position as a function of time. For this purpose, simple electrical sensors were designed and an automated calculation procedure was programmed on a PC-based system. As will be shown, the elements of the permeability tensor are not single valued at a particular fiber volume fraction. Rather, each element displays a broad distribution. More importantly, the variations in the principal permeability values are not correlated since their ratio, the anisotropy, also displays a broad distribution.

In this paper, the hybrid compliance-stiffness matrix method for simulating wave propagation in (delaminated) multilayered media with viscoelastic anisotropy has been confronted with high-quality amplitude and phase experiments on delaminated composites, obtained using the ultrasonic polar scan setup (UPS) in transmission by considering harmonic as well as pulsed ultrasound. Results are presented for multiple thin carbon/epoxy laminates with an artificial edge delamination induced by a foil insert, showing a good agreement between experimental recording and numerical modeling. The obtained results further reveal the feasibility of the harmonic UPS to detect and even locate the depth-position of multiple delaminations in fiber reinforced composites. Considering that the harmonic UPS method does not rely on the detection of different echoes like the classical C-scan, but rather expounds the conditions for efficient stimulation of guided waves in the solid, the method is found to be highly suited for inspecting thin composite materials for the presence of delaminations.

The pulsed ultrasonic polar scan (P-UPS) technique provides a map with characteristic contours reflecting the critical bulk wave angles, which directly relate to the in-plane elastic properties of the insonified material spot. Besides these contours, additional information is captured in a P-UPS experiment which has particular importance for the inspection of anisotropic materials. By extensive post-processing on a single P-UPS experiment, we successfully extracted the local directional (i) critical bulk wave angles, (ii) phase velocity profiles, (iii) slowness curves, (iv) walk-off angles and (v) energy velocity profiles, for the three different polarization states of bulk waves. The procedure is demonstrated and discussed for an isotropic aluminum sample as well as an autoclave manufactured orthotropic [o](8) carbon/epoxy laminate. In addition, a numerical and experimental investigation of the role of the immersion liquid as a lens for the P-UPS result is performed. This lensing effect permits to zoom in/out on the P-UPS fingerprint, hence broadening the class of materials which can be inspected by the P-UPS technique. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This study investigates the use of both the amplitude and time-of-flight based pulsed ultrasonic polar scan (P-UPS) for the nondestructive detection and evaluation of fatigue damage in fabric reinforced composites. Several thermoplastic carbon fabric reinforced PPS specimens (CETEX), loaded under various fatigue conditions, have been scanned at multiple material spots according to the P-UPS technique in order to extract material degradation in a quantitative way. The P-UPS results indicate that shear dominated fatigued carbon/PPS goes with a reduction of shear properties combined with large fiber distortions. The P-UPS results of the tension-tension fatigued carbon/PPS samples on the other hand reveal a directional degradation of the stiffness properties, reaching a maximum reduction of −12.8 % along the loading direction. The P-UPS extracted damage characteristics are fully supported by simulations, conventional destructive tests as well as visual inspection. The results demonstrate the excellent capability of the P-UPS method for nondestructively assessing and quantifying both shear-dominated and tension-tension fatigue damage in fabric reinforced plastics.

In liquid composite moulding (LCM) techniques, the liquid resin has to flow a long distance to impregnate the dry fibres. The measure for the resistance of the fibre preform to the resin flow is the permeability of the fibre preform. Because of the dual-scale porous structure of the textile preforms, test fluid can influence the unsaturated permeability values through the interaction of the fluid and fibres. In this study, the influence of test fluid on the permeability measurement of several types of textile reinforcements is investigated. First the contact angle of various fluids and fibres was measured. Then the permeability measurement of the textile reinforcements was carried out. The results showed that the influence of test fluid is small under the test conditions.

In a conventional ultrasonic polar scan (UPS) experiment, the amplitude or time-of-flight-diffraction (TOFD) values of the transmitted and/or reflected acoustic pulse are recorded for a wide range of incidence angles, in view of gaining knowledge about the elastic properties at the insonified material spot. Here we apply the pulsed UPS technique and investigate the backscattered signal, resulting in the ultrasonic backscatter polar scan (UBPS). It is shown that a UPBS contains a blueprint of geometrically related features of the insonified material spot which can be of particular interest for various industrial applications. We applied the UBPS for (i) the determination of the stacking sequence of a cross-ply composite laminate, (ii) the semi-quantification of a multidirectional microscopic surface corrugation, (iii) the detection of corrosion in an early stage as well as (iv) the detection and the localization of a closed surface breaking crack.

The ultrasonic backscattering technique is employed for the characterization of a 2D surface corrugation which is superposed on or hidden on the backside of a polycarbonate sample. In contrast to previous studies where the incident angle at well-defined and a-priori known symmetry orientations of the surface structure is varied in order to extract the characteristic periodicities, the backscatter polar scan method incorporates an additional variation of the orientation of the vertical insonification plane within the experimental measurement protocol. As such, the characteristic periodicities as well as the surface symmetries can be extracted without any prior knowledge of the surface structure. As a benefit compared to optical methods, we have also validated this extended methodology for the investigation of a 2D subsurface corrugation. Although the diffraction conditions do not change in comparison with a visible 2D surface corrugation, we remark that additional attention is required in the sense that the elastic properties of the substrate material put further restrictions to the range of applicable ultrasonic frequencies. The characterized periodicities and symmetries are in excellent agreement with the design parameters of the (hidden) 2D surface grating.

The characterization of the stiffness properties of fibre reinforced composite (FRC) materials presents more difficulties than the characterization of traditional isotropic materials. This paper first describes the difficulties that can arise and next presents a nondestructive method that offers a possible solution to the problems. The proposed method is a so-called ‘Mixed Numerical/Experimental Technique’ (MNET). From an experimental point of view, the method requires the measurement of resonant frequencies of freely suspended rectangular test plates. From the numerical side, an accurate model of the test plate must be available. The stress field associated with the different resonant frequencies is multi-axial. The measurement procedure however is very simple and requires little specimen preparation. The equipment is inexpensive and the measurement procedure can be controlled by a PC program. The proposed MNET allows the simultaneous determination of all the anisotropical properties and provides an estimation of their statistical distribution.

A mixed numerical experimental approach is the basis of a new method for the identification of the material damping properties of fibre reinforced polymers, which provides an answer to many problems encountered in experimental damping characterization. Experimental modal parameters, measured on a plate specimen, are compared with corresponding results from a numerical calculation, thus allowing to determine the stiffness and damping properties of the material. The relation between the modal parameters (structural parameters) and the material parameters, is obtained by using a numerical model of the specimen in combination with the modal strain energy method.

This paper deals with full-field measurements of aluminum plates under free air blast loading conditions. A stereoscopic high-speed camera system is used to capture the plate response with an inter frame rate of 6,000 fps. The transient deformation fields are calculated using a three-dimensional digital image correlation technique. The deformation fields are compared by data computed with an explicit finite element method. A good agreement has been found between both experimental and numerical data. Furthermore, a mixed experimental-numerical method is proposed to determine the elasto-plastic material parameters during a free air blast event. The method is solely validated using a virtual experiment.

In this paper, the concept of both the 'gradient' and the 'curvature' polar scan is introduced and illustrated for several carbon reinforced composites. While the conventional polar scan concerns the recording of the reflected or transmitted maximum amplitudes or TOFD values for a certain solid angle, here the differences between subsequent scan angles are considered. The quality of a polar scan experiment improves significantly, i.e. more defined and more detailed polar contours are obtained. Even more, several polar contours show up which were hidden in the conventional polar scan experiment. The amplitude and the TOFD recorded experiments suggest that both methods are complementary. For future quantitative modelling, i.e. to extract the elasticity constants Cij of the targeted material, this newly obtained technique can be of great importance.

Conventionally, the mechanical behavior of clinched connections is investigated by a single shear lap test and/or a pull-out test. In practical applications, however, there is a strong probability that a combination of shear and pull-out components is exerted on the clinched joint. This paper deals with the development of an Arcan-like device which enables to introduce various shear/tensile ratio’s in a clinched sheet metal assembly. Since clinch forming locally results in a complex region, a good knowledge of the plastic material properties is of the utmost importance to perform a sufficiently accurate simulation. The identification of post-necking hardening behavior of sheet metal is complex and there is no general agreement on how to perform this. In this study, different methods are used to identify the post-uniform hardening behavior of DC05. The impact of these different procedures on the simulation of the multi-axial loading behavior of a so-called non-cutting single-stroke round clinched connection is investigated. The experimental results are used to check the validity of numerical models to predict the strength under multi-axial loading.

Assessment of the structural dynamic response caused by an explosion is complex due to the high velocity impact, the transient nature of the deformation and the interactions between the structure and the pressure wave. This paper deals with full-field measurements of aluminum plates under free air blast loading conditions. Forty grams of explosive material C4 is detonated at a stand-off-distance of 250 mm and two synchronized high-speed cameras in a stereoscopic setup are used to capture the plate response with an inter frame rate of 6,000 fps. The transient deformation fields are calculated using a three-dimensional digital image correlation technique. The observations appeared to be interesting and somewhat counter intuitively. Results show that a free air blast load induces a highly localized, rapid material response which can be essentially divided in two different stadia. First, when the shock impulse occurs, all particles are forced to move out-of-plane and provided with initial velocities. Secondly, when the pressure wave has vanished, the deformation is further driven by this imparted momentum. This paper shows that a 3D high-speed DIC system is a powerful tool for the assessment of the dynamic response of a structure subjected to extreme loading conditions such as explosions and that this system is capable of accurately measuring surface displacement and deformation data at high rates. Moreover, a free air blast load makes it possible to load a plate specimen at different strain rates in different zones. This makes the test suitable for future material identification using inverse methods, which profit from heterogeneous displacement and strain fields.

Material characterization of soft biological tissues by mixed experimental/numerical (inverse) techniques represents a powerful tool for the analysis of their complex mechanics. However, the uncertainty related to the accuracy and capability of the technique is not yet completely investigated and understood. In this work, a quasi-static indentation procedure is implemented in order to extract the Mooney-Rivlin material parameters and the equivalent Young’s modulus for a hyperelastic rubber-like material. A non-standard approach based on a Finite Element (FE) inverse method is employed. An experimental set-up consisting of a dedicated micro-indentation system has been employed to extract reaction force values as a function of the penetration depth. A cost function, based on the square difference between experimental and numerical data, is optimized trough a modified Nelder-Mead direct search algorithm (MNMA). The accuracy of the identified parameters is discussed using results of a virtual benchmark case study.

This paper describes the identification of hardening parameters of DC05 sheet metal and contact friction coefficients using a multi-layered upsetting test (MLUT), the modified two specimen method (MTSM) and a finite element based inverse method. The MLUT is an alternative compression test that is based on the stacking of small circular specimens on top of one another. This test was designed in order to identify frictional and material behavior under severe local forging of sheet metal as encountered during a clinching operation. The MTSM is adopted in order to identify the friction coefficient between the tools and the stacked circular specimens which are cut from the base material by spark erosion. Next, the hardening behavior is identified inversely by combining the results of a MLUT and finite element simulations of the test setup. Finally, the results are compared with standard tensile tests and it is shown that the MLUT is a viable alternative for the identification of the local hardening behavior of sheet metal where standard test specimens cannot be prepared due to size limitations of the specimen.

Three aluminum plates are subjected to a free-air explosive loading with 40g of C4. Combining two high-speed cameras in a stereoscopic setup and the digital image correlation technique, the full-field deformation is identified. Furthermore, the identified deformation fields are compared by data computed with an explicit finite element method. The Johnson-Cook material model is used to simulate the plastic behavior of the aluminum plate. A good agreement has been found between both experimental and numerical data.

A fast and robust mixed numerical/experimental technique is presented, that allows with a single experiment to determine all components of the in-plane permeability tensor, needed for process simulation of resin transfer molding. This technique combines the highly automated “PIERS” (permeability identification using electrical resistance sensors) central injection rig with a customized numerical simulation of the experiment, and uses an iterative inverse method to identify permeability values for which the simulation agrees with the experiment. It is shown that, for reinforcements that are not approximately isotropic, the numerical simulation in the inverse method significantly improves the precision of the parameter identification, compared to inverse methods with models that are valid only until the injected fluid reaches an edge of the reinforcement.

The accuracy of a Finite Element Simulation for plastic deformation strongly depends on the chosen constitutive laws and the value of the material parameters within these laws. The identification of those mechanical parameters can be done based on homogeneous stress and strain fields such as those obtained in uni-axial tensile tests and simple shear tests performed in different plane material directions. Another way to identify plastic material parameters is by inverse modeling of an experiment exhibiting a heterogeneous stress and strain field. Material parameter identification methods, which integrate optimization techniques and numerical methods such as the finite element method (FEM), indeed offer an alternative tool. The most common approach is to determine the optimal estimates of the model parameters by minimizing a selected measure-of-fit between the responses of the system and the model, In the present study a method is proposed for the identification of the initial yield stress, the two parameters of a Swift isotropic hardening law and the four parameters of the Hil148 yield surface, based on the full-field surface measurements of a cruciform specimen subjected to biaxial tensile loading. Experimental forces and strains are in this case compared to the simulated values. A finite element model of the perforated specimen serves as numerical counterpart for the experimental set-up. The difference between the experimental and numerical strains (e x, e y and e xy) is minimized in a least squares sense by updating the values of the different parameters simultaneously. The sensitivities used to obtain the parameter updates are determined by finite differences, using small parameter perturbations. The optimization routine used, is based on a constrained Newton-type algorithm.

This paper presents an inverse method for the identification of the in-plane orthotropic apparent engineering constants of bi-axially loaded composite materials using cruciform specimens. The full field displacements are identified by a digital image correlation technique. From the displacement field a strain field is computed and compared with finite element strain results of the experiment. The apparent engineering constants are unknown parameters in the finite element model. Starting from initial values, these parameters are updated till the computed strain field matches the experimental strain field, In a first stage, global apparent engineering constants were determined, In this stage a more local determination of the engineering constants is studied.

The simulation of a resin flow through a porous medium by FE-models has become a very important aspect for the design of a high-performance RTM produced composite part. The key parameters to perform RTM flow simulations are the permeability values of the fibre reinforcement. The measurement of this material parameter is still not standardized and thus many different set-ups have been proposed. This paper presents an inverse method, or a so-called mixed numerical/experimental method, for the identification of the permeability values.

Textile reinforcements are characterised by a hierarchy of structure, which allows a general structural approach to their behaviour and their use in composite processing. The hierarchical approach led to the development of a software tool for describing the geometry and mechanics of textiles. This tool is used as a pre-processor for meso-mechanical and permeability models for textile composites. Together the pre-processor, permeability and meso-mechanical models constitute an integrated design tool for textile composite modelling on a meso-scale level. The permeability-related part of this tool is presented in this paper. The focus is on the strategy and numerical approach to permeability modelling of textiles. The proposed strategy allows integrating in a natural way the different processing steps of composite manufacturing, while a numerical approach based on the lattice Boltzmann method allows dealing with the complexity of flow in textiles. Comparison with model test cases and with experimental data on permeability of woven fabrics is provided.

Complex moduli are used to characterize the dynamic material behaviour of fibre reinforced polymers (FRP). This paper presents an efficient method to identify the in-plane complex moduli of thin orthotropic FRP plates, based on a mixed numerical experimental approach. The required experimental data are the modal parameters of a set of specific eigenmodes of a plate specimen. In combination with a numerical model for the calculation of the modal parameters of the specimen, all the independent complex moduli of the material are derived.

This paper presents some further developments and results of the mixed numerical/experimental method for material identification, presented at CADCOMP ’90 in Brussels (see proceedings, page 267).

This paper describes a new method for the characterization of the engineering constants of linear visco-elastic orthotropic materials.