Determination of the parameters of the lamination of a bimetallic plate by means of active thermal non-destructive control

Bimetals are in many ways substitutes for scarce metals, while they represent an independent group of materials necessary for the creation of new machines, devices and other various products. The increasing volume of production of bimetals and products made from them requires an increase in their operational characteristics and, accordingly, an increase in the quality of finished products. One of the difficult technological tasks is the connection of aluminum and its alloys with steels of various classes, since there are many problems associated with the quality of the connection of metals with different properties. To improve the reliability and durability of machines and other products made of bimetals, it is necessary to carry out continuous quality control, and the most effective methods are non-destructive testing. Quite promising in terms of simplicity and accessibility is the method of active thermal control, in which the investigated product is subjected to pulsed thermal action by means of a source of thermal loading. The amplitude, shape and time variation of temperature signals serve as informative parameters that allow an operator or an automated system to detect certain defects and evaluate their parameters. With all the availability of pulsed thermal control, the most difficult component is associated with specialized computer programs for processing experimental data and determining the parameters of a delamination defect. The aim of the study is to create a computer model of the thermal state of a bimetallic plate in the presence of an air bubble between the layers and, through computer simulation, to determine the size of defects during active pulse thermal non-destructive testing of steel-aluminum plates. Materials and methods. When performing the work, the methods of mathematical and computer modeling were used. The created software using the development tools of the MATLAB package was based on known methods for obtaining an approximate solution to a boundary value problem on a computer using the finite difference method. Results. A mathematical model has been developed, an algorithm for solving a boundary value problem, and a computer program has been created that allows simulating a pulse thermal control to determine the parameters of a delamination defect in a bimetallic plate. Conclusion. It was found that it is more efficient to measure the temperature difference from the side where the defect is located and the multilayer plate is heated. Heating the plates from the side opposite to the defect and their further cooling showed significantly lower efficiency in terms of obtaining a useful temperature signal. It is shown that in the presence of a defect, the greater the loading heat flux and the defect size, the greater the value of the useful signal determined by the temperature difference on the measured surface.