Flexible optical fiber probe for surface roughness evaluation of internal channels in additively manufactured components

• Main Authors: Subbarao, Guru Prasad Arudi, Haridas, Aswin, Patinharekandy, Prabhathan, Kapur, Pulkit, Chan, Kelvin, Matham, Murukeshan Vadakke
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Laser Speckle; Additive Manufacturing; DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Prototyping
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/88667; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/45919
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Recent developments in Additive Manufacturing (AM) has revolutionized the production capabilities of multitudes of aerospace components. However, being a stochastic process, there is minimal control over the surface quality and thus require adequate quality checks before implementation. In this context, this paper investigates a flexible optical fiber probe and speckle correlation measurements to quantitatively estimate the average surface roughness, Ra, of areas within internal channels. Details on probe design and preliminary measurement results on a comparator plate with Ra values varying between 6.3 μm and 25 μm are presented. The measurements are compared and validated using the Keyence optical tester (VR-3000).