A confidence map based damage assessment approach using pulsed thermographic inspection

Thermographic Inspection of Composite Materials

Thermography is a non-contact NDT technique for inspection of materials in wide application areas, including corrosion detection in metals, and delamination, porosity and moisture detection in composite materials. Composites often are highly anisotropic in nature. This anisotropy coupled with low thermal diffusivity in thickness direction, severely restricts detection of deeper defects in compo...

Damage Assessment using an Inverse Fracture Mechanics approach

This paper studies the application of an inverse methodology for problem solving in fracture mechanics using the finite element analysis. The method was applied to both detection of subsurface cracks and the study of propagating cracks. The procedure for detection of subsurface cracks uses a first order optimization analysis coupled with a penalty function to solve for the unknown geometric par...

Automatic Inspection of Aircraft Components Using Thermographic and Ultrasonic Techniques

Choosing the Optimal Coating for Thermographic Inspection

Lately, the method of thermography is becoming an unavoidable method in non-destructive testing of different metal materials and constructions. The application of this method is found in testing the energy efficiency, deterioration of structural components, as well as testing the energy efficiency of housing units. Using the thermographic method it is possible to reduce the negative environment...

NASA Thermographic Inspection of Advanced Composite Materials

As the use of advanced composite materials continues to increase in the aerospace community, the need for a quantitative, rapid, in situ inspection technology has become a critical concern throughout the industry. In many applications it is necessary to monitor changes in these materials over an extended period of time to determine the effects of various load conditions. Additionally, the detec...