Dual energy CT inspection of a carbon fibre reinforced plastic composite combined with metal components

Abstract

This work is focused on the inspection of carbon fibre reinforced plastic composites (CFRP) combined with metal components. It is well known that the high absorption of metallic parts degrades the quality of radiographic measurements (contrast) and causes typical metal artefacts in X-ray computed tomography (CT) reconstruction. It will be shown that these problems can be successfully solved utilizing the dual energy CT method (DECT), which is typically used for the material decomposition of complex objects. In other words, DECT can help differentiate object components with a similar overall attenuation or visualise low attenuation components that are next to high attenuation ones. The application of DECT to analyse honeycomb sandwich panels and CFRP parts joined with metal fasteners will be presented in the article.