Inspection of composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPV’s) using 2D array ultrasonic NDT technique

A new scientific paper published by Robert Gordon University, investigates the performance of COPV’s after impact. COPV’s are used across a wide range of industries such as automotive, defence, aerospace and Oil & Gas. A composites pressure vessel is formed by either a metallic or thermoplastic liner being encased within a high strength composite wrap. The resulting structure gives the pressure vessel incredible strength and durability, they are lightweight and smaller compared to the equivalent, purely metallic pressure vessels. The paper goes further to explain the test conducted when a COPV was subjected to a series of tested to help understand its durability.

Non-Destructive Testing has long been established as a thorough and reliable means of providing conclusive evidence on the internal structure of a component. Composites materials can often leave the true scale of an impact damage hidden from view, referred to as Barely Visible Impact Damage (BVID). The damage to the surface does not necessarily represent the true scale of the damage inside.
The Dolphicam2, manufactured by Dolphitech, was chosen due to its unrivalled ability to inspect multilayer composites and dissimilar materials. The Dolphicam2’s onboard analytical software provides easy to interpret statistical data for both live imaging and post-acquisition analysis. Not only is the Dolphicam2 easy to use, but due to the sophisticated visual imaging software, training on how to use the instrument is a simple task.