Transient infrared thermography for damage evaluation in aerospace composites

摘要

In this paper we investigate the performance of defect detection using long duration transient thermography for woven composite laminates subjected to low-velocity impacts. Two types of defects are studied: inclusions represented by foam tabs inserted into the laminate during fabrication and barely visible impact damage due to low-velocity impacts. These defects represent the expected damage states that are necessary for inspection during the service life of a woven composite aircraft component. The long duration transient thermography is demonstrated to successfully detect the embedded inclusions, with a dimension to depth ratio detection capability of approximately 3. It is also demonstrated that the detection of low velocity impact damage with the transient thermography is less successful due to uneven emissivity of the surface. Therefore, processing of the image using a self referencing algorithm is performed which improves the damage detection clarity.