Impact Damage Detection in Light Composite Sandwich Panels

The paper presents a comparative study on impact damage detection in light composite sandwich panels. Three different nondestructive testing methods were used to characterize damage in a test specimen that resulted from a controlled low velocity impact event. The analyzed test methods include the ultrasonic c-scan, vibrothermography and shearography. All considered techniques were positively verified for detecting damage in a sandwich panel. The paper gives details about the experimental procedures and equipment required to perform the tests.