Abstract

Composite materials are widely used in the aeronautic industry. One of the reasons is because they have strength and stiffness comparable to metals, with the added advantage of significant weight reduction. Infrared thermography (IT) is a safe nondestructive testing technique that has a fast inspection rate. In active IT, an external heat source is used to stimulate the material being inspected in order to generate a thermal contrast between the feature of interest and the background. In this paper, carbon-fiber-reinforced polymers are inspected using IT. More specifically, carbon/PEEK (polyether ether ketone) laminates with square Kapton inserts of different sizes and at different depths are tested with three different IT techniques: pulsed thermography, vibrothermography, and line scan thermography. The finite element method is used to simulate the pulsed thermography experiment. Numerical results displayed a very good agreement with experimental results.

© 2016 Optical Society of America

Pulsed micro-laser line thermography on submillimeter porosity in carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites: experimental and numerical analyses for the capability of detection

Hai Zhang, Henrique Fernandes, Frank Billy Djupkep Dizeu, Ulf Hassler, Julien Fleuret, Marc Genest, Clemente Ibarra-Castanedo, François Robitaille, Simon Joncas, and Xavier Maldague
Appl. Opt. 55(34) D1-D10 (2016)

Comparison of quantitative defect characterization using pulse-phase and lock-in thermography

Christiane Maierhofer, Mathias Röllig, Rainer Krankenhagen, and Philipp Myrach
Appl. Opt. 55(34) D76-D86 (2016)

Eddy current pulsed thermography for ballistic impact evaluation in basalt-carbon hybrid composite panels

Hai Zhang, Stefano Sfarra, Ahmad Osman, Fabrizio Sarasini, Udo Netzelmann, Stefano Perilli, Clemente Ibarra-Castanedo, and Xavier P. V. Maldague
Appl. Opt. 57(18) D74-D81 (2018)

Recognition of wall materials through active thermography coupled with numerical simulations

Francesca Pietrarca, Mauro Mameli, Sauro Filippeschi, and Fabio Fantozzi
Appl. Opt. 55(25) 6821-6828 (2016)

Detecting defects in marine structures by using eddy current infrared thermography

W. Swiderski
Appl. Opt. 55(34) D17-D21 (2016)