Defects Characterization in CFRP Using X-ray Computed Tomography

Although carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) is ideally high mechanical performance, manufacturing induced defects are hardly avoidable and their appearances generally result in a loss of mechanical properties. To accurately characterize this kind of defects is a foundation to estimate mechanical performance of a CFRP structure. Compared to the traditional defect assessment methods, X-ray computed tomography (CT) has been approved a promising method due to its ability to provide spatial information of defect. In this study, the effect of resolution on the accuracy of defects estimation was investigated in details. Scanning data obtained by using two different resolutions were comparatively studied based on delamination characterization. In addition, an image processing based method for porosity estimation was discussed as well. It is concluded that it is possible for us to enlarge our region of interest by selecting a reasonable resolution not at cost of losing too much desired details.