Non-contact measurement and characterisation of armour ceramics

The motivation for this research was the requirement for providing a reliable, cost effective non-destructive testing method for identifying defects in Armour Ceramic components. At present, Armour Ceramic components are inspected using an X-ray technique and its effectiveness is based on human interpretation of the X-ray images. Furthermore the X-ray technique does not enable differentiation between certain types of defects in the presence of density variation. This research relates to the development of an intelligent inspection system based on high frequency ultrasound for rapid, reliable and cost effective identification of defects in Armour Ceramics. The decision making in relation to the inspection task is automated using artificial intelligence based signal processing and data interpretation techniques.