Systems and methods for detecting discontinuous fibers in composite laminates

A system for performing an ultrasonic inspection of a composite laminate, comprising:

• a sensor assembly including a first component adapted to transmit an incident ultrasonic signal onto a front surface of the composite laminate at a plurality of locations over an area of interest, and a second component adapted to receive a full waveform at each of the plurality of locations over the area of interest;
• and
• a data acquisition and control component operatively coupled to the sensor assembly and adapted to store the full waveform at each of the plurality of locations over the area of interest and further adapted to enable analysis of the full waveform at each of the plurality of locations over the area of interest for an amplitude distortion indicative of a fiber wrinkle within the composite laminate, wherein the analysis includes selecting a gate value corresponding to a depth location within the composite laminate and displaying a C-scan image of an amplitude value from the full waveform at the plurality of locations over the area of interest,
• wherein the composite laminate further includes a back surface opposite from the front surface, and wherein receiving a full waveform at each of the plurality of locations over the area of interest includes receiving a full waveform of amplitude versus time between the front and back surfaces of the composite laminate at each of the plurality of locations over the area of interest.

A machine-readable medium including a computer program adapted to performing an ultrasonic inspection of a composite laminate, comprising:

• a first portion adapted to receive a full waveform from each of a plurality of locations over an area of interest on the composite laminate;
• a second portion adapted to store the full waveform at each of the plurality of locations over the area of interest;
• and
• a third portion adapted to analyze the full waveform at each of the plurality of locations over the area of interest for an amplitude distortion indicative of a fiber wrinkle within the composite laminate, wherein the analysis includes enabling the selection of a gate value corresponding to a depth location within the composite laminate and enabling the display of a C-scan image of an amplitude value from the full waveform at the plurality of locations over the area of interest,
• wherein the composite laminate further includes a back surface opposite from the front surface, and wherein receiving a full waveform at each of the plurality of locations over the area of interest includes receiving a full waveform of amplitude versus time between the front and back surfaces of the composite laminate at each of the plurality of locations over the area of interest.