Characterization of bond quality for polymeric medical tubing Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • A non-contact, laser-optic based technique referred to as the Thermo-Acousto-Photonic Nondestructive Evaluation (TAP-NDE) was utilized to investigate bond integrity and localized stiffening due to an attached wire mesh on small diameter polymeric medical tubing. Interrogating ultrasonic waves were generated in the tubing by use of a Q-switched Nd: YAG laser. Detection was achieved by use of a Fiber-Tip Interferometer (FTI) in conjunction with a continuous wave HeNe laser. The time-frequency analysis of the generated dispersive waves was performed combining the Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) with the Hilbert Transform (HT) that effectively decomposed the digitized waveguide mode enabling identification of defect characteristic frequency tendencies. Three different bond defects were evaluated: tensile pull, needle puncture, and crease. These induced flaws represent possible manufacturing defects such as de-bond, potential leak sources, and geometry irregularities. The frequency tendencies were found to uniquely identify each bond defect. Frequency tendencies were also found to uniquely identify localized stiffening due to an attached wire mesh proving that this technique can unambiguously identify propagation modes from among non-propagation modes or vibrations. These findings demonstrate the utility of TAP-NDE and the EMD for characterization of small diameter polymeric medical tubing.

published proceedings

  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Aerospace Division (Publication) AD

author list (cited authors)

  • Harms, K. D., Yang, B., & Suh, C. S.

complete list of authors

  • Harms, KD||Yang, B||Suh, CS

publication date

  • December 2001