Deformation Measurement

Aerospace Application Example

aerospace_1_notitle-300x247Air­bus has built a repu­ta­ti­on for inno­va­ti­ve air­craft, reco­gni­zed around  the world for their safe­ty and effi­ci­en­cy. All of the­se attri­bu­tes are dri­ven by a top-notch test­ing pro­gram, who­se inno­va­ti­ve prac­ti­ce are evi­den­ced by their use of the Vic-3D mea­su­re­ment system.

One of the goals of the Air­bus test­ing pro­gram is to cha­rac­te­ri­ze the struc­tu­ral dama­ge cau­sed by col­li­si­ons bet­ween the air­craft and small pro­jec­ti­les such as birds and other ground based debris, and to ensu­re that the struc­tu­ral inte­gri­ty of the air­craft is maintained.

This type of event can be repro­du­ced by firing a varie­ty of dif­fe­rent types of pro­jec­ti­le at a pie­ce of air­craft struc­tu­re at a high velo­ci­ty. The results obtai­ned can be used to compa­re with com­pu­ter models of the struc­tu­re under impact loads, lea­ding to more high­ly opti­mi­zed and safer designs.

 

aerospace_2_notitle-300x224Dr. Richard Bur­gue­te, expe­ri­men­tal mecha­nics spe­cia­list at Air­bus UK sin­ce 1997, explains the bene­fits of this approach as fol­lows: “The VIC-3D sys­tem allows us to be sure we have cap­tu­red all of the rele­vant data, some of which might have other­wi­se been unobtainable.”

Dynamic excitation on a spacecraft

Historic measurement from 2000

This exam­p­le com­bi­nes the Vibro­gra­fie Sys­tem with a Pie­zo­s­ha­ker Modu­le for a non-des­truc­ti­ve inspec­tion. The heat shield with C‑Si‑C (car­bon fiber-sili­con com­po­si­te) of the pro­s­pec­ti­ve reco­very vehicle/ space­craft x38 was review­ed by She­aro­gra­phy.

Spacecraft6

For easier hand­ling, the Pie­zo­s­ha­ker modu­le is com­pres­sed on the sur­face of the object via a suc­tion base.
(a) Pie­zo­s­ha­ker modu­le, (b) the heat shield of the space­craft X38 © Flight of the space­craft X38.

x

spacecraft2

The pic­tu­re shows the deter­mi­na­ti­on of times of the heat shield with the natu­ral fre­quen­cy (1400 Hz).

 x

spacecraft3

Local vibra­ti­on forms of defects at 10kHz and 18 kHz of the nose hood in the mark­ed area of the image. During the inspec­tions, two defects have been detec­ted in the upper area of the dog.

Vic-3D High-Speed Vibration Analysis System

Vibration1               Vibration2

 

The Vic-3D™ Vibra­ti­on Ana­ly­sis Sys­tem by Cor­re­la­ted Solu­ti­ons, Inc. is a new addi­ti­on to the Vic-3D pro­duct line of mea­su­re­ment solu­ti­ons. Vic-3D Vibra­ti­on enables full-field 3D vie­w­ing, mea­su­re­ment, and ana­ly­sis of tran­si­ent events. Full-field ope­ra­tio­nal deflec­tion shapes in the fre­quen­cy domain can easi­ly be seen and com­pared with levels of accu­ra­cy in the nano­me­ter range.

The image abo­ve on the left is a moun­ted model jet pla­ne which has under­go­ne a tran­si­ent vibra­ti­on event.  To the right, the 3D vibra­ti­on data obtai­ned from the event is shown as a 2D con­tour over­lay on this image.  The data over­lay enables the user to see exact­ly how much defor­ma­ti­on is occur­ring and whe­re it is occur­ring.  This infor­ma­ti­on is available at each fre­quen­cy whe­re deflec­tion shapes occur.

The data below dis­plays one ope­ra­tio­nal deflec­tion shape obtai­ned with the VIC-3D Vibra­ti­on Ana­ly­sis Sys­tem. Three-dimen­sio­nal dis­pla­ce­ments, strains, velo­ci­ties, and acce­le­ra­ti­ons can all be com­pu­ted in the ana­ly­sis soft­ware.  The result is not only visu­al, but also enables the user to export quan­ti­ta­ti­ve data (ASCII, Mat­Lab, CSV, etc.) from the sample’s beha­vi­or for FEA ana­ly­sis and vali­da­ti­on.  A 3D ani­ma­ti­on of the model jet’s ope­ra­tio­nal deflec­tion shape at 441 Hz is shown below, with only 12 microns of dis­pla­ce­ment amplitude.

 

Film Vibration3D_W_431Hz

 

What is transient vibration analysis? 

Tran­si­ent vibra­ti­on ana­ly­sis is the pro­cess of moni­to­ring, mea­su­ring, and ana­ly­zing the con­di­ti­on of samples during a tran­si­ent event. Mate­ri­al pro­per­ties can also be obser­ved through the ana­ly­sis of ope­ra­tio­nal deflec­tion shapes and mode shapes crea­ted by the event. The­se full-field 3D shapes can pro­vi­de useful infor­ma­ti­on which can be used to impro­ve and cor­rect a sample’s balan­ce, dis­pla­ce­ment, fle­xu­re, rigi­di­ty, and over­all pro­duct per­for­mance.  Mea­su­ring ope­ra­tio­nal deflec­tion shapes can help ans­wer the ques­ti­on: “How much is this struc­tu­re actual­ly moving at a par­ti­cu­lar frequency?”

 

Why is it important to you?

Ope­ra­tio­nal deflec­tion shapes crea­ted from tran­si­ent tests show how a sam­ple can have a non­uni­form thic­k­nes­ses, sur­face irre­gu­la­ri­ties, weak points, cracks and/or other imper­fec­tions & flaws.  This infor­ma­ti­on can be useful at any point in the pro­cess of achie­ving your over­all goal, from wri­ting a pro­ject pro­po­sal to test­ing a func­tion­al or fai­ling part in the field: The Vic-3D Vibra­ti­on Ana­ly­sis Sys­tem

  • Has a jus­ti­fia­ble pri­ce point when wri­ting proposals
  • Can be used: 
    • To crea­te and vali­da­te FE models when desig­ning parts & equipment
    • During the rese­arch and design process
    • In the pro­duct test­ing phase
    • To pro­vi­de manu­fac­tu­ring qua­li­ty assurance
    • To cer­ti­fy and assu­re equip­ment is ope­ra­ting as expec­ted and required
    • To mea­su­re and ana­ly­ze parts post-installation
    • To ensu­re pro­duct qua­li­ty and per­for­mance over time and in the field
    • When reas­ses­sing pro­duct func­tion­a­li­ty over time

 

Examp­les of tran­si­ent events which can be mea­su­red are the following:

▪ Door Slams ▪ Modal Ham­mer Strikes
▪ Engi­ne Start-ups ▪ Drop Tests
▪ Explo­si­ve Testing ▪ Bal­li­stic Testing

 

System Features 

  • View, compa­re, ani­ma­te, graph, extra­ct, and export data for easy FEA comparison
  • Mea­su­re 3D full-field, high fre­quen­cy mode shapes with nano­me­ter resolution
  • Mea­su­re extre­me­ly low ampli­tu­des with extre­me­ly high accelerations
  • Full-field strain, defor­ma­ti­on, and shape varia­bles are still available
  • Easy pro­ce­du­res, accu­ra­te results
  • User fri­end­ly interface
  • Only a frac­tion of the pri­ce of a laser vibro­me­ter system

 

Advantages over other measurement techniques

While tra­di­tio­nal vibra­ti­on mea­su­re­ment tech­ni­ques can be useful, they also have many draw­backs.  For exam­p­le, acce­le­ro­me­ters can beco­me unglued during test­ing, can mass-load a sam­ple, and can only pro­vi­de point to point mea­su­re­ments, often only in a sin­gle pla­ne. Pre-test­ing and test­ing can also take days or even weeks to per­form on lar­ge struc­tures.  With the Vic-3D Vibra­ti­on Ana­ly­sis sys­tem, the­re are no adhe­si­ves, wires, signal ana­ly­zers, power ampli­fiers, or load cells neces­sa­ry for detail­ed vibra­ti­on results.  Obtai­ning thou­sands of data points for a tiny, com­plex struc­tu­re or a lar­ge one is as easy as chan­ging a pair of len­ses. Simi­lar to digi­tal image cor­re­la­ti­on, laser vibro­me­ters can pro­vi­de a non-cont­act mea­su­re­ment solu­ti­on, but simi­lar to acce­le­ro­me­ters, they are also only able pro­vi­de point to point mea­su­re­ments.  A 3D mea­su­re­ment can be achie­ved with mul­ti­ple scan­ning vibro­me­ters, but the­se are usual­ly moun­ted on lar­ge robot arms which can take up valuable labo­ra­to­ry space and can­not be moved easi­ly once instal­led.  Addi­tio­nal­ly, the­se sys­tems are unre­ason­ab­ly expen­si­ve for many appli­ca­ti­ons.  The Vic-3D Vibra­ti­on Ana­ly­sis sys­tem can be taken into the field with any com­pa­ti­ble lap­top and tog­e­ther with the Vic-3D Work­sta­tion, the sys­tem can beco­me mobi­le and secu­re insi­de your faci­li­ty.  Vic-3D Vibra­ti­on Ana­ly­sis is only a frac­tion of the pri­ce of a 3D scan­ning laser vibro­me­ter sys­tem, and sin­ce the modu­le can be added onto any exis­ting 3D sys­tem, it’s even more affordable.