Fundamental Study on Integrity Evaluation Method for Copvs by Means of Acoustic Emission Testing (Report‪)‬

Introduction Composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) are widely used for space applications such as accumulators for space satellites and propellant tanks for rockets. It is known that COPVs are likely to suffer complicated internal damages by being dropped, by rough handling, or by impacts of dropped tools. Even when such internal damages occurred, only invisible small damages are caused on the impact surface in many cases. Therefore, it is difficult to find these damages from outer surface by visual testing (VT). Since internal damages may reduce strength of the vessels, a reliable nondestructive testing (NDT) for the damages is desired. Several researchers [1-3] evaluated the applicability of various NDT methods for COPVs, although the optimal inspection technique is not yet found.