Non-Destructive Evaluation of Small Aircraft Wing Adhesive Joints using Pulse Infrared Thermography Method

摘要

In this article we examine possibility of using active infrared thermography as a non-traditional non-destructive evaluation method for an adhesive joints testing. The attention was focused on the load bearing wing structure and related structural joints, specifically the adhesive joints of wing spar caps and skins on the wing demonstrator of a small sport aircraft made mainly of carbon composite. The pulse thermography method using flash lights optical excitation was tested. A modified differential absolute contrast method was used to process the measured data to reduce the effect of heat source inhomogeneity and surface emissivity. The tested method proved a very good ability to detect defects in the adhesive joints. The achieved results are easy to interpret and use for qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the adhesive joints of thin composite parts.