Synchrotron Radiation Tomography for Reconstruction of Layer Structures and Internal Defects of Composite Materials

Synchrotron radiation tomography has been used as a non intrusive technique to study layer structures and internal defects of composite materials with carbon aluminum fibers and boron carbon fibers. A rotatable platform, which is positioned in a vacuum chamber of a beam line, is used to hold specimens and to get multi directional scanning images. The scanning images are recorded on a PMMA film firstly by use of the single exposure method, resampled by a microscopic system, and reconstructed with computerized tomography to yield their three dimensional descriptions. This reconstruction makes it possible to identify different layers and structures of composite materials. Particularly the defects inside composite materials can also be detected and evaluated.