Transient thermography was employed in the inspection of two repaired aircraft composite panels in the laboratory. The investigated panels were aluminium alloy panels under boron composite patching. The defects were placed between or under the plies of the composite patches and were assessed using firstly a simple heat excitation source with an IR camera and secondly an integrated pulsed thermographic system. In both situations, the defects were artificially created. After detecting the defects, the thermal images obtained from the transient thermographic inspection underwent an image processing quantitative analysis approach, in order for the qualitative images to be translated into quantitative results. Finally, mathematical - thermal modelling was also attempted in order to obtain information about the defects in space and in time.

Date Published: 1 April 2003
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 5073, Thermosense XXV, (1 April 2003); doi: 10.1117/12.497520

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5073:
Thermosense XXV
K. Elliott Cramer; Xavier P. Maldague, Editor(s)