Thermosonic imaging is a new nondestructive testing (NDT) technique capable of provide full-field, rapid inspection of crack-type of defects in materials or structures. Conventional thermosonic imaging system employs an ultrasonic welder, which is designed of a single frequency to generate high-power ultrasonic excitation in a work piece, and an infrared (IR) camera to capture thermal images of surface and subsurface defects under ultrasonic excitation. Most thermosonic imaging NDT is applied for metallic materials to detect crack-like defect, since the heat is generated from the rubbing surfaces of a defect. The inspection of composite structures using thermosonic NDT remains challenging due to their high acoustic attenuation and low surface hardness. In this paper, we present the development of a thermosonic imaging system, which is capable of exciting the ultrasonic transducer at different frequencies for Thermosonic NDT to overcome the limitations associated with single frequency power source as well as the spring loaded transducer design. One particular application of this new thermosonic imaging system is for rapid inspection of composite structures. Various composite structures have been tested to verify and valid the new thermosonic imaging system performance.
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