Infrared thermography techniques have been used for many years in the non-destructive testing and evaluation (NDT and E) of materials and structures. The main advantage of thermography over classical NDT techniques resides in the possibility of inspecting large areas in a fast and safe manner without needing to have access to both sides of the component. Nonetheless infrared thermography is limited to the detection of relatively shallow defects (a few millimetres under the surface), since it is affected by 3D heat diffusion. However, the most common types of anomalies found on composites, such as GRP wind turbine blades are delaminations, disbonds, water ingress, node failure and core crushing, and can be effectively detected and sometimes quantified using active thermographic techniques. This research work presents the use of infrared thermography on glass reinforced plastic (GRP) wind turbine blades assessment. Finally, the development of an autonomous, novel and lightweight multi-axis scanning system, as a concept, deploying in situ thermography NDT is also presented, with the intention of developing maximisation of the blade area coverage in a single run, at a known sensitivity, with the utilisation of the minimum number of system degrees of freedom and the maximum repeatability, as well as positional accuracy possible.

Date Published: 22 May 2013
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 8705, Thermosense: Thermal Infrared Applications XXXV, 87050G (22 May 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2016671

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8705:
Thermosense: Thermal Infrared Applications XXXV
Gregory R. Stockton; Fred P. Colbert, Editor(s)