IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 13, NO.

2, JUNE 2003 207

SQUID-NDE Method on Damaged Area and Damage

Degree of Defects in Composite Materials
Y. Hatsukade, M. S. Aly-Hassan, N. Kasai, H. Takashima, H. Hatta, and A. Ishiyama

Abstract—Current detection method was developed to detect

damaged area and damage degree of complex defect in electri-
cally conductive composite materials by using superconducting
quantum interference device (SQUID) gradiometer. The method
was applied to a carbon fiber-reinforced carbon matrix composites
(C/Cs) specimen in various damage conditions to investigate the
effectiveness of the method. The area and amount of detoured
current due to damage in the specimen were successfully detected
corresponding to the damage condition. The possibility of the
method for classification of the damage condition was discussed.
Index Terms—C/Cs, damaged area and damage degree, nonde-
structive evaluation, SQUID gradiometer.

I. INTRODUCTION

C ARBON fiber-reinforced carbon matrix composites

(C/Cs) have many superior properties, such as high
strength, stiffness to weight ratio and fracture toughness up to
temperatures over 2000 C. Based on this advantage, C/Cs have
(a)
been applied to high-temperature structures, for example, brake
disks for airplanes and racing cars and nozzles for rockets [1].
Reuse of these structures is expected because of economic
reason. The reuse requires nondestructive evaluation (NDE)
for safety. However, almost conventional NDE methods like
ultrasonic testing, x-ray testing, and eddy current testing, can
not be well applied to C/Cs because of the unique properties of
C/Cs [1]. Thus, development of new NDE method for C/Cs is
expected.
Mechanical damage in C/Cs by tensile load can be translated
to conditions of cracking of carbon matrix and fracture of carbon
fiber [2]. When a current is flowed in damaged C/Cs, the current
is detoured around the damage. Thus, by detecting the area and
amount of the detoured current, estimation of the damaged area (b)
and damage degree should be possible. Fig. 1. (a) 0 /90 cross-ply laminated C/Cs of sixteen plies arranged in
A NDE system using superconducting quantum interference a symmetric stacking sequence of [0 =90 ] , (b) C/Cs CT specimen with
device (SQUID) works as a current detector [3], [4]. In this pre-crack used in this study.
study, we developed a method to detect directly the detoured
current due to damage in electrically conductive material using specimen in various damage conditions, to demonstrate the de-
a planar SQUID gradiometer. We applied this method to a C/Cs tection of the area and amount of detoured current due to the
damage in the C/Cs specimen.
Manuscript received August 5, 2002. This work was conducted at the National
Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). II. C/C SPECIMEN AND ITS DAMAGE MECHANISM
Y. Hatsukade and A. Ishiyama are with the Graduate School of Science
and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan (e-mail: Fig. 1(a) illustrates 0 /90 cross-ply laminated C/Cs used in
hatsu@mn.waseda.ac.jp; atsushi@mn.waseda.ac.jp). this work. The 0 plies cross over the 90 plies, and total sixteen
M. S. Aly-Hassan and H. Hatta are with the Institute of Space and Astro-
nautical Science, Kanagawa 229-8510, Japan (e-mail: aly-has@pub.isas.ac.jp; of these plies are arranged in a symmetric stacking sequence of
hatta@pub.isas.ac.jp). . Fig. 1(b) illustrates the schematic figure of the C/Cs
N. Kasai and H. Takashima are with National Institute of Advanced Industrial specimen with a pre-crack for compact tension test used in this
Science and Technology, Tshukuba Central Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan (e-mail:
kasai-naoko@aist.go.jp; h-takashima@aist.go.jp). study [5]. The dimension of the specimen is 149 mm in width,
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TASC.2003.813685 144 mm in length, and 3 mm in thickness.
1051-8223/03$17.00 © 2003 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on January 5, 2009 at 06:52 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
208
Fig. 2. The crack extension processes of 0 /90 cross-ply laminated C/Cs in
this work. (a) Initial stage, (b) first stage, (c) second stage, and (d) third stage.
A group of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
(ISAS) reported the damage mechanism in the 0 /90 cross-ply
laminated C/Cs specimens [5]. The damage condition is
classified into three stages. Fig. 2 schematically shows the
three damage stages. We define the nondamaged condition
of the specimen as the initial stage (Fig. 2(a)). Transverse
cracks between fiber bundles occurred in the C/Cs specimen
in process. They randomly exists in each ply. The width of the
fiber bundle in specimen used in this work is about 2 mm.
At the first stage, as the tensile load is applied in the -di-
rection, some splitting (matrix cracking) appear near tip of the
pre-crack in 0 plies, and many splitting appear at both sides of
the pre-crack in 90 plies (Fig. 2(b)). These splitting on both 0
plies and 90 plies tend to occur at locations where the trans-
verse crack exists. Splitting emerges newly or extends in length
as the load increases.
At the second stage, some of the splitting appeared in 90
plies, extend ahead the notch tip. In 0 plies, fractures of carbon
fibers occur accompanied with the extension of the splitting in
adjacent 90 plies, above the extension (Fig. 2(c)). This fiber
fracture is called micro-crack.
At the third stage, number of the micro-cracks increases,
and matrix fractures around the fractured fibers are occurred
in 0 plies accompanied with the increase of the micro-cracks.
Then, neighboring splitting are connected with the fractures.
Such connection occurs between some splitting successively.
A zigzag unstable crack formed by the connection occurs in 0
plies (Fig. 2(d)). In 90 plies, splitting extends from the notch
tip, to be about same length as the unstable crack in 0 plies.
Delamination between 0 plies and 90 plies also occur in the
area where the unstable crack appears.
III. EXPERIMENTAL
A. Current Detection Method
In the neighborhood of an isolated and concentrated current
flowing in plane, field gradient and
are approximately proportional to - and - components, and
respectively, according to Maxwell’s equation
Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on January 5, 2009 at 06:52 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 13, NO. 2, JUNE 2003
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of SQUID-NDE system used in this work.
. We derive this approximation on assumption of
and in the equation.
In the case of current flowing uniformly in a wide plate spec-
imen spreading in plane, the field gradient and
due to the current is almost constant and its value is
small except near the edge of the specimen. A local defect in
such wide specimen causes detour of current around the defect.
It causes the change in magnitude of the current components,
and . The field gradient change induced by the current change
should be approximated to that by the isolated and concentrated
current. The total field gradient and , due to
the local current change and the uniform current, are roughly
proportional to and respectively, because the constant
value of field gradient due to the uniform current is small. So
we adopted a SQUID gradiometer to detect the detoured cur-
rent due to damage in specimen. A detoured current map can
be obtained by converting measured and into
and .
B. SQUID-NDE System and Measurements
Fig. 3 shows the schematic diagram of the SQUID-NDE
system with a planar LTS SQUID gradiometer constructed in a
normal laboratory in National Institute of Advanced Industrial
Science and Technology (AIST). The details of the system and
the SQUID are described elsewhere [6], [7].
The defect in the cross-ply C/Cs specimens is composed of
the defects extending toward - and/or -directions. So we in-
jected current in - and -direction into the specimen, individu-
ally. Current return pad was used to decrease the constant field
gradient due to uniform current [8].
In measurements, sinusoidal current of 90 mA at 710 Hz was
injected in -direction into the specimen at the initial stage,
at first. Field gradient and above the spec-
imen are measured with lift-off of 4.5 mm. Next, and
are measured while injecting the same current in -di-
HATSUKADE et al.: SQUID-NDE METHOD ON DAMAGED AREA AND DAMAGE DEGREE OF DEFECTS IN COMPOSITE MATERIALS
Fig. 4. Terminal settings and scanned area. Return current pad was attached
on the back surface of the specimen.
rection. The sampling space is 2 mm in - and -directions. This
is the procedure of field gradient measurement.
After the measurements, we applied the tensile load to the
specimen in -direction, to make the damage condition at the
first stage. After unload, we applied the procedure of field gra-
dient measurement to the damaged specimen. As well as the first
stage, the second and third stages were made, and the measure-
ment procedure was repeated successively. The measurement
procedure was carried out adopting the same lift-off and scanned
area. Current maps were made converting measured
and to and . The settings of electric terminals
for current injection and the scanned area are shown in Fig. 4.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 5(a)–(d) show the current maps at the initial stage, the
first stage, the second stage, and third stage respectively in the
case of current injection in plus -direction. The magnitude and
direction of a vector arrow in these figures show the amplitude
and direction of the current. flowing in
minus -direction means decrease from the uniformly injected
current due to defect. So, if a splitting in -direction exists,
currents that has -component appear in front of the splitting,
and currents that has -component appear behind the splitting.
The contour map of the amplitude of the current is underlapped
below the current map. Minimum value of the contour line is
determined by the value averaged the currents in nondamaged
area enough far from the pre-crack and edges of the specimen.
It is assumed that minimum contour line shows the border of
the detoured current area. The pre-crack locates at the center of
right edge in these figures as shown in Fig. 4.
In Fig. 5(a), the currents flowing toward minus -direction
near the pre-crack are due to the pre-crack. The currents ap-
pearing at upper side of the pre-crack in the figure are supposed
to be the detoured current due to a small transverse crack in a 0
ply. In Fig. 5(b), the detoured current area significantly spreads
compared with the initial stage. In this stage, two splitting in
-direction were observed by micro-scope at 4 mm and 8 mm
left from the right edge of the figure, with 8 mm and 2 mm
lengths, respectively, on the specimen surface. The location of
the former roughly agrees with where the currents toward plus
Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on January 5, 2009 at 06:52 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
209
Fig. 5. Current maps obtained by current injection uniformly in x-direction.
(a) at the initial stage, (b) at the first stage, (c) at the second stage, and (d) at the
third stage. White arrow, which orientates toward left-direction in the figures,
means decreased current from the injected current due to defect. White arrow,
which orientates up or down direction, means detoured current due to defects.
Contour map is underlapped below the current map.
-direction appear at upper side of the pre-crack. The location of
the latter agrees with where the currents toward minus -direc-
tion appear ahead of the pre-crack. In Fig. 5(c), the detoured cur-
rent area extends a little toward plus -direction. The splitting
of 2 mm length newly appeared at 10 mm from the right edge of
the figure at the second stage. The location of this splitting cor-
responds to the extended area of the detoured current. The split-
ting at 8 mm extended in length to about 4 mm. In Fig. 5(d), the
area of the detoured currents extends toward minus -direction
and a little toward minus -direction. The splitting at 4 mm, 8
mm and 10 mm extend to 20 mm, 10 mm and 6 mm in length,
respectively. The change of the detoured current area approxi-
mately corresponds to the extension of the splitting. We should
be able to roughly estimate the location and extended length of
the splitting from these detoured current map.
The relationship between the damaged area and the damage
stage, obtained from Fig. 5, is shown in Fig. 6(a). The area in-
creases roughly linear as the stage advances except for the initial
stage. Fig. 6(b) shows the relationship between the total cur-
rent amount by adding the current amount at each measurement
point in the detoured current area and the damage stage. The
increase of the amount from the second to third stages is much
larger than the increase from the first stage to the second stage.
It is supposed that this difference should be due to the delami-
nation and unstable crack that occurred at third stage.
In the case of current injection in minus -direction, the de-
fects extending toward -direction should be detected in prin-
ciple. However, because of the shape of this specimen, some of
the current injected from upper electric terminal spread over the
notch toward the holes in right side of the specimen and detours
around the pre-crack. Because of this detoured current, the same
analysis as the case of current injection in -direction can not
be adopted. However, the total amount of , which passed
210
(a)
(b)
Fig. 6. (a) The relationship between the detoured current area and the damage
stage. (b) The relationship between the total amount of the detoured current and
the damage stage.
Fig. 7. The relationship between the total amount of the current passing
through damage area in the centerline and the damage stage.
through the centerline (See Fig. 4), should reveal the occur-
rence of the micro-cracks and splitting extending toward -di-
rection, which occur near the line. Fig. 7 shows the relationship
between the total amount of the passing current through a 10
mm-length range from the notch tip toward minus -direction
Authorized licensed use limited to: IEEE Xplore. Downloaded on January 5, 2009 at 06:52 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON APPLIED SUPERCONDUCTIVITY, VOL. 13, NO. 2, JUNE 2003
at each damage stage. The range corresponds to where unstable
crack appeared at the third stage. The current amount at first
stage slightly changes from the initial stage. On the other hand,
the amount at second and third stage decreases about 13% and
18% from the amount of the initial stage, respectively. These
decreases suggest that prediction of the damage stage should be
possible by monitoring the passing current.
By applying the current detection method to the damaged
C/Cs, we successfully detected the damaged area from the de-
toured current map. We could also distinguish the damage stage
from the total amount of the passing current through the dam-
aged area. Degradation of the fracture toughness is caused by
fracture of carbon-fiber [5]. It is required the distinction of the
second stage from the first stage for NDE on C/Cs [2], [5]. We
concluded this method has a possibility of the NDE, because
this method has the potential to distinguish the damage stage on
C/Cs. More quantitative analysis is necessary to estimation of
the damage degree.
V. SUMMARY
We developed a SQUID-NDE method using current injec-
tion and SQUID gradiometer to detect the damaged area and
damage degree in electrically conductive materials. We applied
the method to 0 /90 cross-ply laminated C/Cs specimen at var-
ious damage conditions. The damaged areas at all the condi-
tions were successfully detected with current injection in -di-
rection. It is shown that monitoring the total amount of the cur-
rent passing through the damaged area enables to distinguish
the damage stage. We conclude that this method should have
the possibility to realize NDE on C/Cs though the estimation of
the damage degree requires more quantitative analysis.
REFERENCES
[1] C. R. Thomas, Ed., Essentials of Carbon–Carbon Composites. Cam-
bridge, U.K.: Roy. Soc. Chem., 1993.
[2] Y. Kogo, H. Hatta, H. Kawada, and T. Machida, “Effect of stress con-
centration on tensile fracture behavior of carbon–carbon composites,” J.
Comp. Mater., vol. 32, no. 13, pp. 1273–1294, 1998.
[3] E. F. Fleet, S. Chatraphorn, and F. C. Wellstood, “HTS scanning SQUID
microscopy of active circuits,” IEEE Trans. on Appl. Supercond, vol. 9,
no. 2, pp. 4103–4106, June 1999.
[4] B. J. Roth, N. G. Sepulveda, and J. P. Wikswo Jr, “Using a magnetometer
to image a two-dimensional current distribution,” J. Appl. Phys., vol. 65,
no. 1, pp. 361–372, Jan. 1989.
[5] M. S. Aly-Hassan, H. Hatta, and S. Wakayama, “Effect of zigzag
damage extension mechanism on fracture toughness of cross-ply
laminated carbon/carbon composites,” Journal of Advanced Composite
Materials, Jan. 2003, to be published.
[6] Y. Hatsukade, N. Kasai, M. Kurowasa, R. Kawai, H. Takashima, F. Ko-
jima, and A. Ishiyama, “Detection of internal cracks and delamination
in carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics using SQUID-NDI system,” Physica
C, vol. 372–376, pp. 267–270, 2002.
[7] Y. Hatsukade, N. Kasai, and A. Ishiyama, “Nondestructive detection of
delamination in carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics using superconducting
quantum interference device,” Jpn. J. Appl., vol. 40, p. 606, June 2001.
[8] N. Kasai, D. Suzuki, H. Takashima, M. Koyanagi, and Y. Hatsukade,
“HTS-dcSQUID gradiometer for nondestructive evaluation,” IEEE
Trans. on Appl. Supercond., vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 4393–4396, June 1999.