Vibration Test-Cell with Axial Load and In-Situ Microscopy
AssigneeUniversity of South Carolina
InventorsVictor Giurgiutiu, Yeasin Bhuiyan, Matthew Droghini
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Abstract
A new vibration test-cell that allows a static load to be applied simultaneously with lateral vibration coupled with in-situ microscopy that allows for the ability to open a fatigue crack up to a desired gap, as well as generate acoustic emission (AE) from vibration excitation, micro-fracture events are captured by the AE measurement while the physical observation of the crack faying surfaces is performed in-situ with an optical microscope embedded in the test cell.
Claims20
A vibration test cell for detecting micro fractures comprising:
- a mechanical load frame for retaining a specimen;
- a mechanical shaker;
- an optical microscope with a camera;
- and
- an acoustic emission measuring apparatus for measuring acoustic emissions from the specimen.
A method for determining if a specimen contains a micro-fracture event comprising:
- securing a specimen to be tested to a mechanical load frame;
- applying an axial load to the specimen;
- applying a vibration excitement to the specimen;
- capturing at least one visual image of the specimen;
- and
- capturing at least one acoustic emission from the specimen.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.