An ultra-wideband radar approach to nondestructive testing

Abstract

In this paper a new method for nondestructive testing (NDT), applied to carbon fiber composite materials, is investigated. The approach is based on the comparison between the electromagnetic signal reflected by the carbon fiber composite sheet under test, when an ultra-wideband (UWB) signal is incident on it, and the one reflected by a healthy sheet. The possible presence of a defect is then revealed by an appropriate metric measuring the mismatch between the two reflected waveforms. The performance of different metrics is investigated, for two defect types, based on real measurements in an indoor environment. As an outcome of our experimental activity, very promising results have been obtained for one of the tested metrics, which allows to accurately detect surface defects with a size comparable to the radar resolution on a carbon fiber composite sheet.

Sensor Radar for Object Tracking

“…UWB has been employed in through wall imaging, which has the ability to locate indoor moving targets with a radar situated at a standoff range outside buildings [66]- [73]. It has also been successfully adopted in a number of related applications including, e.g., radio-frequency identification [74]- [76], search and rescue of trapped victims [77]- [81], vital sign detection and estimation [82], [83], stroke detection [84], people counting [85], environmental imaging [86], [87], and non-destructive testing [88]. In the sensor radar field a number of papers have addressed several aspects related to the use of UWB, e.g., clutter removal and channel modeling [89], [90], detection [91]- [95], target recognition [96], tracking [97]- [111], sensors deployment [57], [112], [113], sensors power allocation [114], and cognitive mechanisms [115]- [118].…”

Combined US and UWB-RF imaging of concrete structures for identification and location of embedded materials

“…Ultra-wide band (UWB) techniques have been introduced to expand the characterization of traversed materials [22][23][24]. Instead of individual ones [25], they postulate that differences among materials are better addressed considering wide frequency ranges.…”

Principles and Applications of Microwave Testing for Woven and Non-Woven Carbon Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Composites: a Topical Review

“…Gubinelli et al [46] used two ultra-wideband (UWB) antennae to detect the presence of a hole in CFRP. The experimental setup is presented in Fig.…”

“…11 Schematic diagram of the experimental setup for microwavebased thermography Fig. 10 Setup of an UWB radar system for far-field detection of a hole in a CFRP specimen [46] computer (PC) is used for control of the measuring instruments, data acquisition and signal post-processing.…”