1172 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. I I , NO.
I , MARCH 2001
Analysis of low-velocity impact damage
in reinforced carbon fiber composites
by HTS-SQUID magnetometers
A. Ruosi, M. Valentino, G Peluso, G. Pepe
Abstract- Composite materials are susceptible to damage
which can be induced by service loads and accidental impacts.
The detection of any signature produced by damage is critical to
maintaining the integrity of aircraft parts during routine
maintenance. A high critical temperature SQUID magnetometer
has been successfully employed in the evaluation of the behavior
of multi-ply carbon fibers reinforced composite panels for
aeronautical applications under low-velocity impacts.
Measurements of the induced magnetic field have been carried
out above specimen damaged with energy impact from 1 to 40 J.
A quasi-linear behavior in two different regimes between the
SQUID’S response and the energy of the impact has been found.
This suggests a correspondence to the detection of intrinsically
different damage that occurs in the laminates at different
energies.
Index Terms-Composite materials, HTS-SQUIDS, low-
velocity impact damage, nondestructive testing
I. INTRODUCTION
Because of their high strength and stiffness to weight
ratios, which facilitate high load-carrying capacity, carbon
fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) are widely used in
aerospace applications such as panels in aircraft wings, tails
and fuselage skins.
However, due to the brittle epoxy matrix in which the
carbon or graphite fibers are embedded, the laminates are
susceptible to internal damage caused by impacts during their
loading use. The damages can be brought about by dropping a
tool during maintenance, by hailstones, by bird strikes, by
stone, by runway and so on. During an impact the fibers
absorb part of the energy and distribute some of the load in an
area as well as through the laminate thickness. This excess
energy may lead to delamination, sub-surface matrix cracking,
fibedmatrix debonding and fiber fracture, which in turn can
cause reductions in static residual strength.
An early and accurate detection of these defects can be a
difficult task, especially for low-velocity impact when a
Manuscript received September 20,2000
The authors are with lstituto nazionale di Fisica della Materia (INFM) Dip of
Physics Universitd “Federico 11” P. V. Tecchio 80, 80125 Napoli Italy
This work has been supported in part by INFM within the project:”Eddy
Current Non-destructive Evaluation using Superconducting Devices” co-
ordinated by Prof. G. Peluso, and by the EC through the INTAS 97-0894
project “Scanning high-Tc SQUID system” co-ordinated by Prof. 1’. Seidel
1051-8223/01$10.00 0 2001 IEEE
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signature of the damage may not have visible surface
manifestation. On the other hand, even such a tiny damage
may affect the structural integrity of the material, since, due to
stress and strain, their effects propagate during use, altering
the strength or the stiffness of the component. For a common
impact energy and impactor, a damaged specimen has a
considerable strength loss in compression [ 11. Thus, no matter
how small they are, damages should be detected and
accurately sized as soon as possible in order to facilitate
monitoring of its growth [ 2 ] .
The delaminated areas are larger in the interfaces that are
farther away from the impact side [3]. Very often in
aeronautical applications this is the only side which is
possible to inspect. This makes the detection of the anomalies
a challenging task both for visually inspection and detection
by probes.
Several nondestructive inspection techniques exist for
testing CFRP. Among them thermography and ultrasounds are
probably the most effective methods for testing at the
manufacturing level.
Eddy-current techniques currently used have a poor
sensitivity to evaluate low-velocity impacts in such a complex
materials. Within this electromagnetic approach to the
problem, emerging technologies such as eddy-current testing
by HTS-SQUID magnetometry could enhance both the
detection and the investigation of damage in composite
materials due to the SQUID’Ssufficiently high sensitivity.
This paper deals with the detection of damage in n-ply
CFRP panels (where n =16) caused by low-velocity impact,
using an HTS-SQUID based eddy-current nondestructive
system.
The damages, artificially produced by a drop weight
machine are caused by impacts with energy ranging between
one to 40 Joules. The specimen, with different thickness, have
been damaged both below and above the point in the load-
displacement curve where the fibers start fracturing [4].
11. EXPERlMENTAL SET-UP
A picture of the eddy-current NDE system based on high
critical temperature SQUID is shown in Fig. 1. The main
characteristics of the 3-channel system set-up in our
laboratory are summarized in Table I. For more details refer
to [5] and [ 61.
 1173

111. INVESTIGATED SAMPLES

Fig. 2 illustrates the relevant details of the multi-ply

t'
carbon-fiber composite investigated in this work. For clarity
the details of the fiber orientation are shown only for a single
sequence of plies. The carbon fibers in the it"-pIy lie in the x-y
plane and make an angle a, with the x-axis. The angles a,
repeat for N plies. A composite structure requiring greatest
strength along the x-direction might have N=2, cll=45", a2=-
45".
Fig. 2. Details of the cross-ply carbon-fiber composite panels
inspected here.

Samples tested consisted of square carbonlepoxy woven

Fig. I Picture of our 3-channel IiI'S-SQUID-based NDE system
TABLE I
MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NDE SYSTEM
fabric cross-ply laminates 70 mm in side of different
thickness. The 150 pm basic layer consists of 6-pm diameter
unidirectional T 400 carbon fibers with a content by volume
of 55%, embedded in a epoxy resin HMF 934 matrix. The
quasi-isotropic lay-up has a stacking sequence of four cross
plies (al=45", a2= - 45", a3= - 45, a4=45) sandwiched
between two 210 mm thick woven carbon fiber cloth
embedded in the same polymer matrix. The plain wave fabric
can be approximated as two unidirectional plies oriented at
right angle to each other. As a result, the laminates have a
stacking sequence (0/90)/45"1-45"/-45"/45"/(0/90) where each
layers is repeated N times (N = 1-4) [3].
The impact tests were performed with a drop weight
machine which provides dynamic and kinetic parameters such
as contact force, impact velocity and displacement perforation
energy.
For sufficiently low-velocity impact, the behavior of CFRP
is independent of the loading rate [7]. This property enables
us to simulate the dynamic response by static tests. The
hemispherical impactor has a diameter of 12.7 mm.
The specimens investigated in this work have been
damaged with different loads.
Iv. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Magnetic field slensitivity SQUID 70 fT1H z " ~ As a first step we detected surface-maps of the modulus and
magnetometer (s,hielded) phase of the magnetic field above the samples for a wide
Magnetic field s'ensitivity whole system 300 fr'l H Z " ~ frequency range of the eddy-current. From these
(unshielded) Dl00 Hz measurements (not presented here) we obtained the value of
3 dB Bandwidth 26 kHz the frequency where the response related to the damage is
Dynamic range (unshielded) 130 dB maximum. This optimum frequency is around 12 kHz for the
Slew rate 1 kHz io3 ws 4 mm thick specimen damaged with no perforation and about
Scanning range 200 x 200 mmL 5 kHz for the ones of the same thickness, fully penetrated.
Minimum steD in x-v Blane 100 um
This optimum frequency decreases with the panel thickness
since the eddy-currents are not required to deepen into the
Positioning system maximum speed 50 mm/s
material to detect the damage as for the thicker samples.
LN2-room temperature distance 5 mm In Figs. 3 and 4, the line-scans above the mouth of the
Circular coil diameter 4.5 mm defects, retrieved from the surface-maps of the amplitude and
phase along the x-axis B, are shown for 4 mm thick samples
damaged with different impact energy (see Fig.2).
The different behavior of the curves in terms of amplitude,

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 I174

shape and slope are strongly related to the difference in the
damage. As a comparison, the same measurement has been
performed above a undamaged sample with the same
characteristics.
The change in the peak to peak amplitude or in the slope of
the central part of the curve of the SQUID response in Fig.3
are both a good gauge of the damage severity into the
material. The reproducibility and accuracy have been
successfully tested on samples damaged with similar impact
energy ,&, , L Z ~Mz,
, N2, L d
The increase in the slope of the curve slope, s, with the
energy of the impact follows a quasi-linear behavior for two
different ranges of energy . The first goes from about 1 J to
12 J and the second from 12 J to about 32 J. In Table 11, we
show the slope of the curves normalized to the one of the non-
damaged sample, so, (s/so-I),and the related impact energy.
40
0 L3
matrix failure or delamination corresponds to a change in
slope of the curve. At this initiation of the damage there is a
decrease in material stiffness but very little or no visible
damage is observed upon superficial inspection (samples Lz,,
Mzr, NZl, SA L / ) .
The threshold energy at which this damage is first
detectable is about 1 J in this range, but damages of even
lower energy have been detected in thinner panels. At high
impact energy (samples LI, L3 , L , ) fiber failure is observed
to occur in a region with significant force oscillations [3]. In
this range all layers are progressively broken and the damage
is clearly visible in the surface which is farther away from the
impact side.
We clearly distinguish between these different behaviors of
the materials and the existence of a threshold energy level
below which no fiber failure is discernible.
After the perforation, the impactor bends the broken layers
until the penetration process is completed (sample HI). This
threshold energy of the fibers fracture initiation is a possible
useful indicator for defining permissible limits of impact
severity in relation to ensuring continued load- carrying
capacity of the structure.

TABLE I I

L
IM PACT ENERGY AND SLOPE OF THE SQUID RESPONSE FOR THE
SET OF INVESTIGATED SAMPLES
-60
-40 0 0 0

-15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15
X(">
Fig.3. Linescans of the module of Bx as a function of the Sample E damaging Slope kE
displacement along the x-axis above the mouth of the defects in a # (J) dB/dx
panel damaged with different impact energies. int 0 0
L2t 1.24 0.050 0.002
0.2 L I Mzt 1.28 0.066 0.003
0.0 N2t 1.31 0.068 0.003
-0.2
- -0.4
-0.6
-8 -0.8
s4
LI
L2
8.37
12.62
18.73
0.338
0.509
0.590
0.008
0.011
0.014
t
-1.0 M2 19.36 0.065 0.014
-1.2
-1.4 N2 19.15 0.062 0.014
-1.6 L3 24.28 0.618 0.015
-1.8 L4 31.56 0.728 0.023
-2.0
.15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 HI 54.55 2.191 0.046

x (")
Fig. 4 Lincscans of the phase of B, as a function of thc
displacement along the x-axis, above the mouth of the defects i n a
panel damaged with different impact encrgies. For impact energies below this threshold value, internal
damage has also occurred even though no visible damage is
By comparison between our measurements and the load- observed on the impacted surface.
displacement curves obtained by the instrumented impact In this work we did not carry out any microscopic analysis so
tests, we believe the different slopes are related to the we cannot verify the type of damage that occurred internally
intrinsically different damage of this material. in the sample (e.g, matrix cracking, delamination, etc).
Indeed, for a low value of the load the curves show a
linear response of the material. It has been suggested [3] that
the onset of the incipient damage, usually in the form of

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IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have discussed a damage detection method
in carbon fiber reinforced polymers commonly used in
aeronautical applications. Multi-ply panels affected by low-
velocity impacts have been investigated.
We successfully performed measurements of the magnetic
field, produced in the sample by distortion of eddy-current
distributions due to the damage, using an HTS-SQUID
magnetometer.
The threshold energy at which the damage is first detectable
is 1 J.
Moreover, this technique enables one to distinguish
between two different behavior of the material response. This
suggests a correspondence to the detection of intrinsically
different damages which occurs in the laminates at different
energies. There may be a decrease in material stiffness,
usually related to matrix failure or delamination, at low-
energy impact, when very little or no visible damage is
observed upon superficial inspection and a fibers fracture,
observed at higher energy when the damage is clearly visible
in the surface which is farther away from the impact side.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
D. Santoro and A. Marcone from ALENIA’ group are
acknowledged for providing us with the samples.
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I175
We are grateful to G. Caprino, V. Lo Presto and L. Vicente
Forte for their work on the artificial damaging of the
specimen and for the helpful discussions on the behavior of
CFRP. Thanks also to D. Salinas, and A. Montanino for their
help and suggestions during this research.
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