Transient thermography is a method used successfully in the evaluation of composite materials and aerospace structures. It has the capacity to deliver both qualitative and quantitative results about hidden defects or features in a composite structure. Aircraft must undergo routine maintenance – inspection to check for any critical damage and thus to ensure its safety. This work aims to address the challenge of NDT automated inspection and improve the defects’ detection by suggesting an autonomous thermographic imaging approach using a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) active thermographic system. The concept of active thermography is discussed and presented in the inspection of aircraft CFRP panels along with the mission planning for aerial inspection using the UAV for real time inspection. Results indicate that the suggested approach could significantly reduce the inspection time, cost, and workload, whilst potentially increase the probability of detection of defects on aircraft composites.
Recently, basalt-carbon hybrid composite structures have attracted increasing attention due to their better damage tolerance, if compared with carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites (CFRP). Low-velocity is considered as one of the most severe threats to composite materials as it is usually invisible and it occurs frequently in service. With this regard, nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques, especially emerging modalities, are expected to be an effective damage detection method. Eddy current-pulsed thermography (ECPT), as an emerging NDT technique, was used to evaluate the damage induced by low-velocity impact loading in a CFRP laminate, as well as in two different-structured basalt-carbon hybrid composite laminates. In addition, ultrasonic C-scan and x-ray computed tomography were performed to validate the thermographic results. Pulsed phase thermography, principal component thermography, and partial least squares thermography were used to process the thermal data and to retrieve the damage imagery. Then, a further analysis was performed on the imagery and temperature profile. As a result, it is concluded that ECPT is an effective technique for hybrid composite evaluation. The impact energy tends to create an interlaminar damage in a sandwich-like structure, while it tends to create an intralaminar damage in an intercalated stacking structure.
In this paper, a novel optical air-coupled ultrasound (O-ACU) technique is proposed. A wide broadband (100 KHz - 1 MHz) laser-acoustic based optical microphone worked as probe in an air-coupled ultrasound (ACU) system. The O-ACU modality was used to detect several CFRP and GFRP impacted laminates and the results were compared with the classical ACU modality. Infrared thermography, as an established reference technique, was used for the validation. Advanced image processing techniques were applied. Conclusively, O-ACU shows an obvious improvement in sensibility and resolution.
In this paper, eddy current pulsed thermography in transmission mode was used to detect the damages caused by low-velocity impacts in carbon fiber-reinforced polymer and basalt-carbon hybrid fiber-reinforced polymer laminates. In particular, different hybrid structures including intercalated stacking and sandwich-like structures were used. The impact energy of 12.5 was used for the evaluation of the impact damage level. Ultrasonic phased-array C-scan was performed for comparative purposes. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of the two structures were identified and discussed.
Long Wavelength Infrared (LWIR) cameras can provide a representation of a part of the light spectrum that is sensitive to temperature. These cameras also named Thermal Infrared (TIR) cameras are powerful tools to detect features that cannot be seen by other imaging technologies. For instance they enable defect detection in material, fever and anxiety in mammals and many other features for numerous applications. However, the accuracy of thermal cameras can be affected by many parameters; the most critical involves the relative position of the camera with respect to the object of interest.
Several models have been proposed in order to minimize the influence of some of the parameters but they are mostly related to specific applications. Because such models are based on some prior informations related to context, their applicability to other contexts cannot be easily assessed. The few models remaining are mostly associated with a specific device.
In this paper the authors studied the influence of the camera position on the measurement accuracy. Modeling of the position of the camera from the object of interest depends on many parameters. In order to propose a study which is as accurate as possible, the position of the camera will be represented as a five dimensions model. The aim of this study is to investigate and attempt to introduce a model which is as independent from the device as possible.
In this paper, thermographic inspections, ultrasonic C-scan and terahertz imaging were used to detect damages caused by impacts in natural, non-natural and hybrid composites. In particular, different hybrid structures were used. In some samples, numerical simulations were performed to predict the damage. A comparison of the results based on experimental and simulated experiments were afterwards conducted with the aim to explore the inspection capability of each technique.
Stitching is used to reduce incomplete infusion of T-joint core (dry-core) and reinforce T-joint structure. However, it may cause new types of flaws, especially submillimeter flaws. Thermographic approaches including microvibrothermography, microlaser line thermography, and microlaser spot thermography on the basis of pulsed and lock-in techniques were proposed. These techniques are used to detect the submillimeter porosities in a stitched T-joint carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite specimen. X-ray microcomputed tomography was used to validate the thermographic results. Finally an experimental comparison of microlaser excitation thermography and microultrasonic excitation thermography was conducted.
Stitching is used to reduce dry-core and reinforce T-joint structure. However, it might cause new types of flaws, especially submillimeter flaws. In this paper, new approaches including micro-VT, lock-in micro-LLT and micro-LST based on both lock-in and pulse methods are used to detect submillimeter flaws in stitched CFRP. A comparison of laser excitation thermography and micro-VT on micro-porosities is conducted. Micro-CT is used to validate the infrared results. Then, a finite element analysis (FEA) is performed. The geometrical model needed for finite element discretization was developed from micro-CT measurements. The model is validated for the experimental results. Finally a comprehensive experimental and simulation comparison of micro-LLT and micro-LST based on both lock-in and pulse methods is conducted.
Infrared Thermography (IRT) is a well-known Non-destructive Testing (NDT) technique. In the last decades, it has been widely applied in several fields including inspection of composite materials (CM), specially the fiber-reinforced polymer matrix ones. Consequently, it is important to develop and improve efficient NDT techniques to inspect and assess the quality of CM parts in order to warranty airworthiness and, at the same time, reduce costs of airline companies. In this paper, active IRT is used to inspect carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) at laminate with artificial inserts (built-in sample) placed on different layers prior to the manufacture. Two optical active IRT are used. The first is pulsed thermography (PT) which is the most widely utilized IRT technique. The second is a line-scan thermography (LST) technique: a dynamic technique, which can be employed for the inspection of materials by heating a component, line-by-line, while acquiring a series of thermograms with an infrared camera. It is especially suitable for inspection of large parts as well as complex shaped parts. A computational model developed using COMSOL Multiphysics® was used in order to simulate the inspections. Sequences obtained from PT and LST were processed using principal component thermography (PCT) for comparison. Results showed that it is possible to detect insertions of different sizes at different depths using both PT and LST IRT techniques.
Stitching is used to reduce dry-core (incomplete infusion of T-joint core) and reinforce T-joint structure. However, it may cause new types of flaws, especially submillimeter flaws. Microscopic inspection, ultrasonic c-scan, pulsed thermography, vibrothermography, and laser spot thermography are used to investigate the internal flaws in a stitched T-joint carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) matrix composites. Then, a new microlaser line thermography is proposed. Microcomputed tomography (microCT) is used to validate the infrared results. A comparison between microlaser line thermography and microCT is performed. It was concluded that microlaser line thermography can detect the internal submillimeter defects. However, the depth and size of the defects can affect the detection results. The microporosities with a diameter of less than 54 μm are not detected in the microlaser line thermography results. Microlaser line thermography can detect the microporosity (a diameter of 0.162 mm) from a depth of 90 μm. However, it cannot detect the internal microporosity (a diameter of 0.216 mm) from a depth of 0.18 mm. The potential causes are given. Finally, a comparative study is conducted.
3D Carbon fiber polymer matrix composites (3D CF PMCs) are increasingly used for aircraft construction due to their exceptional stiffness and strength-to-mass ratios. However, defects are common in the 3D combining areas and are challenging to inspect. In this paper, Stitching is used to decrease these defects, but causes some new types of defects. Infrared NDT (non-destructive testing) and ultrasound NDT are used. In particular, a micro-laser line thermography technique (micro-LLT) and a micro-laser spot thermography (micro-LST) with locked-in technique are used to detect the micro-defects. In addition, a comparative study is conducted by using pulsed thermography (PT), vibrothermography (VT). In order to confirm the types of the defects, microscopic inspection is carried out before NDT work, after sectioning and polishing a small part of the sample..
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