NDT Technology

NDT Technology

Evaluation and health monitoring of the thermal insulation honeycomb sandwich wall of the cryogenic tank by thermography method

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Amirreza Ardebili
Mohammad Hossein Alaei
Amir Kaveh
Jafar Eskandari Jam
Faculty of Materials and Manufacturing Technologies, Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
10.30494/jndt.2024.451958.1142
Abstract
Honeycomb sandwich panels are lightweight yet strong structures. These panels have features such as thermal insulation due to their honeycomb structure. The honeycomb sandwich panel structure is a combination of high flexural strength and flexural strength with low weight. These materials are widely used in the aviation industry. Manufacturing defects and operational damage have emerged as an important safety concern, and as a result, the need for non-destructive testing to identify defects and damage during operation and maintenance has increased. In addition to detecting defects, it is very important to accurately identify or classify them. In this article, the insulating cryogenic composite tank wall has been inspected by a non-destructive method. Four sandwich samples with a honeycomb structure were designed and manufactured using two CFRP plates and a Nomex core. On one side of the samples, there was 5 mm of resin with nano clay 30B, which was mixed by ultrasonic mixing method. This structure was designed as thermal insulation and gas barrier. Infrared thermography was used to detect and categorize defects in the honeycomb structure. These defects included adhesive separation, delamination, presence of air in the carbon shells and resin layer, and fracture in the honeycomb core. Thermography results showed that by using thermography, defects in the outer shell and resin can be identified with high accuracy, but the accuracy is lower in the inner shell and core.According to the thermography results, it was observed that all defects were detected up to the fourth layer, but in the lower layers (layers 5, 6 and 7) defects such as Teflon, Kapton and dry carbon layers could not be detected. In addition, based on observations, defects such as lack of adhesion from the side of the resin layer due to high thickness and insufficient heat transfer could not be identified. Using the temperature-location diagram, the size of the defects up to 1 mm depth was determined with high accuracy.
Keywords
Honeycomb composites
Insulated panel
Thermography
Health Monitoring

Subjects

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  • Receive Date 10 April 2024
  • Revise Date 30 June 2024
  • Accept Date 16 July 2024