AN ULTRASONIC GUIDED WAVE TOMOGRAPHIC IMAGING APPROACH FOR CHARACTERIZING BALLISTIC DAMAGE IN COMPOSITE STRUCTURES

Through Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) support from the U.S. Army, an industry partner has explored the possibility of using an ultrasonic guided wave computed tomography (CT) imaging approach to detect and characterize ballistic damage to composite armor panels that are commonly used in ground vehicles. Laboratory tests have been conducted and shows that the guided wave CT approach can indeed be applied to these complex structures to provide accurate damage mapping potential. Analytical analysis and finite element method (FEM) modeling has been used to aide in understanding guided wave propagation behavior in these anisotropic structures. The work presented herein clearly shows great potential for using a guided wave sensing approach to locate and image ballistic damage in composite armor panels as well as the ability to predict wave propagation and scattering in these complex structures that could be used in the future to predict optimal sensor geometry, configuration, defect type, and detection sensitivity.