Title: The Design, Fabrication, and Inspection Of Tow-Steered Composite Panels Including the Effects of Intentional Defects

Authors: "Cyrus J. R. Kosztowny, Tyler B. Hudson, Ryan S. Enos, Peter D. Juarez, and Elizabeth D. Gregory"

DOI: 10.33599/nasampe/s.24.0106

Abstract: Design, layup, curing, and nondestructive inspection (NDI) of two tow-steered unidirectional carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite panels, one with and one without intentionally placed defects, was performed. State-of-the-art techniques in the design, fabrication, and inspection processes were used. An in-house design tool was used to create a tow-steered design. A pattern of various intentional defects was also created for implementation into one of the panels, while the other panel was used as a pristine reference. The tow-steered design was fabricated using the Integrated Structural Assembly of Advanced Composites (ISAAC) automated fiber placement (AFP) facility at NASA Langley Research Center. In-situ thermal imaging was performed to capture and quantify the effects of defects during material placement. An in-situ cure monitoring system was used to track the development of a subset of the implemented defects. Lastly, two post-cure inspection techniques, Ultrasonic transmission (UT) and structured light scanning, were performed to capture features within the panel and exterior surface data, respectively. In-situ inspection data were compared with post-cure inspection data. The defects were tracked successfully throughout the fabrication process, and the effect of defects was localized.

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Conference: SAMPE 2024

Publication Date: 2024/05/20

SKU: TP24-0000000106

Pages: 15

Price: $30.00