Rapid thermal non-destructive testing of aircraft components

Abstract

This paper compares the use of different thermal non-destructive testing techniques to rapidly inspect carbon fibre composite aircraft components. Samples were prepared to simulate inclusions and barely visible impact damage in carbon fibre reinforced plastic laminate which represent faults in the manufacturing process and in-service environment respectively. The limits of material fault detection were then compared for transient and lock-in thermography and the results were verified with underwater ultrasonic c-scans. The paper concludes that lock-in thermography is a more powerful technique to detect impact damage and that transient thermography is more suitable for detecting inclusions. Thermal non-destructive testing is up to 30 times quicker than underwater ultrasonic c-scanning and may ultimately provide the solution to the problem of rapid quantitative in-service and manufacturing process inspection of commercial aircraft components.