Thermographic imaging of disbonds in laminated structures
Abstract
The presence of disbonds significantly decreases the integrity of many laminated structures used in aerospace applications. Critical for the assessment of the effect of these disbonds on structural integrity is a determination of the disbond area. Thermography is able to detect local variations in temperature after external heating resulting from subsurface delaminations. One limitation of thermography is that the heat diffuses within the laminates, causing difficulty in determining the area of the disbond from the thermographic image. A technique has been developed for reducing the thermographic image to an image of subsurface delaminations for some laminated structures. The technique clearly delineates regions of disbond and is able to resolve disbonds which are unresolvable in the thermographic image. The limits of this technique for resolving the area and separation of disbonds are investigated using both experimental measurements and numerical calculations.
- Publication:
-
36th International Instrumentation Symposium
- Pub Date:
- 1990
- Bibcode:
- 1990isa..symp..811W
- Keywords:
-
- Delaminating;
- Imaging Techniques;
- Laminates;
- Nondestructive Tests;
- Thermography;
- Composite Structures;
- Computerized Simulation;
- Heat Transfer;
- Surface Temperature;
- Thermal Conductivity;
- Instrumentation and Photography