Discipline: Technology and Engineering
Subcategory: Civil/Mechanical/Manufacturing Engineering
Jevar Carter - Onondaga Community College
Over the years, manufacturing industries have been losing millions using destructive methods for product testing to determine material properties. The scope of this research is to show that sound waves can be used to predict the properties in mechanical composites. Generalized equations of Hooke’s Laws were used to model the mechanical properties of the composite materials. The numerical calculations were simplified using MATLAB software and associated toolboxes and functions. The results from these numerical calculations prove that nondestructive testing with sound waves provides acceptable methods for predicting the properties in mechanical composites. Experimental values of Young’s moduli across the grain in composite cylindrical shells were measured to be 19.6 GPa, and along the grain of the material the value was 30.5 GPa. The natural frequency method which modeled the response of the material to different frequencies gave a Young’s moduli of 19.5 GPa (0.5% error) across the grains and 30.5 GPa parallel to the grains. The modeling of pulsed wave velocity gave a Young’s moduli of 18.14 GPa (7.45% error) along the grain and 30.51 GPa parallel to the grains. Utilizing these methods provides
cheaper and consistent manufacturing tolerances, which will be beneficial to manufacturing companies for high value low volume product testing.
Funder Acknowledgement(s): Funding was provided by an NSF / LSAMP grant to Upstate LSAMP.
Faculty Advisor: Alexander Liberson, asleme@rit.edu