Terahertz measurement and imaging detection of delamination and water intrusion in ground based radome panels

摘要

We demonstrate the location and identification of delaminations and water intrusion in advanced composite materials used in ground based radome panels, shelters and towers using time domain terahertz imaging. Water has a very high absorption in the THz spectral region in comparison to polymer foam and fiberglass, so the method is very sensitive to water intrusion. The sub-picosecond near single cycle electromagnetic images enabled identification of delaminations of the fiberglass shell and foam. We report a novel time domain terahertz non-destructive evaluation control system, which is suitably portable for applications such as field examination of radome composites.