Advanced NDT procedures and thermal data processing on CFRP aeronautical components

In this work, active Pulsed Thermography (PT) was used to improve CFRP aeronautical parts investigation in order to detect sub-surface defects. Composite materials are prone to successful thermal/infrared NDT analyses, since defects are easily characterised by their surface ‘footprints’ under thermal pulses with reliable results. Better defect characterisation is achieved analysing data with better data processing and procedures, providing detailed contrasts maps where defects’ edges are distinguished. Thermal data are analysed for different specimens with artificial defects and experimental procedures are verified on real a failure in structural aeronautical component. Finally, improved data processing allowed better identifying the damaged areas on specimens.