Infrared Thermography in Health Monitoring of CFRP for Aeronautical Applications

摘要

In this work, infrared thermography (IRT) is used for investigation of some causes of degradation of carbon fibres based composites such as their vulnerability to impact damage and to water permeability. With regard to the impact damage, IRT is used for monitoring the material surface temperature variation while it is being impacted and for detection of the damage occurred under impact. Owing to the impact on-line monitoring , thermal images are recorded in time sequence starting before the impact and lasting some time after to visualize initiation and propagation of the thermoplastic effect which accounts for permanent damage. Non destructive inspection is performed with optical lock-in thermography and, apart from detection of impact damage, it is also aimed at discovering other defects, such as presence of porosity arose during manufacturing and of water inside honeycomb cells in sandwich structures.