University of Twente Student Theses
Mode I fatigue delamination growth in composite laminates : design of an automated DCB test setup
Oude Tanke, Friso (2024) Mode I fatigue delamination growth in composite laminates : design of an automated DCB test setup.
|
PDF
57MB |
| Abstract: | This master thesis presents the design and implementation of a setup to automate crack length measurement in a Double Cantilever Beam (DCB) fatigue testing method, which is used to characterize the delamination resistance of composite materials under fatigue conditions. The testing method employed adheres to the protocol established by the ESIS TC4 Committee, which is currently used to conduct a Round Robin test. The proposed setup uses a high-resolution camera and image processing algorithms to automatically detect and measure the crack length during the test, reducing the need for manual measurements and improving accuracy and repeatability. The thesis discusses the implementation of the setup in an existing testing environment and presents the design considerations and trade-offs required to ensure reliable operation. Several challenges related to the control of the servo-electric testing machine, the Instron Electropuls E3000, are discussed in detail. Additionally, the setup required the development of a LabVIEW program for measuring delamination length, data acquisition & analysis and communication with the machine, which is also described in this work. Overall, the proposed automated crack length measurement setup provides improvement over current manual measurements as described in the protocol, reducing the potential for manual errors, eliminating the observer bias and improving the time efficiency of the testing process. The developed setup is used to characterize two different materials. The results of this work demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of automated crack length measurements in composite fatigue testing, with potential application to test and characterize other materials. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Faculty: | ET: Engineering Technology |
| Subject: | 52 mechanical engineering |
| Programme: | Mechanical Engineering MSc (60439) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/98494 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
Show download statistics for this publication
Show download statistics for this publicationRepository Staff Only: item control page