Thermography as a tool for damage assessment

The use of infrared thermography (IRT) as a nondestructive evaluation technique is becoming increasingly attractive for the detection of sub-surface defects in composite structures. Extensive in-field studies have been performed that enable qualitative results to be obtained for simple structures. Unfortunately its application to complex geometries is not widely accepted. This study focuses on the use of finite element (FE) analysis to simulate the thermographic process for complex non-axisymmetric geometries. As a result of this study a suitably calibrated finite element simulation has been generated and validated. This process has the potential to be applied to composite structures with complex structural configurations.