Optical Absorption of Epoxy Resin and its Role in the Laser Ultrasonic Generation Mechanism in Composite Materials

Epoxy resins are used in various applications and are essential to the fabrication of carbon fibre reinforced composite materials (CFRCs). This paper investigates laser generated ultrasound in epoxy resins using three different lasers, a TEA CO2, a Nd:YAG and a XeCl excimer. In these partially transparent materials the ultrasonic generation mechanism is directly related to the optical absorption depth which can therefore be measured directly from the ultrasonic waveforms using for example a Michelson interferometer as detector. The present work aims firstly to relate the observed amplitude of the longitudinal wave to the optical absorption depth of the epoxy and secondly to evaluate the role of the epoxy resin to the generation of the ultrasound in CFRCs. For the latter, comparative results of generation efficiency between the three wavelengths are presented and an attempt is made to understand the way that the resin matrix influences the generation mechanism of ultrasound in composite materials.