| ABSTRACT: | THERMAL NDT&E OF COMPOSITE AIRCRAFT REPAIRS
N. P. Avdelidis1, C. Ibarra-Castanedo2 , X. Maldague2 , D.P. Almond 3, A. Moropoulou
1 IRT & Materials Consultancy, Agia Triada Ano Volos, Volos, Greece; 2 Computer Vision & Systems
Laboratory, Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering, Université Laval, Quebec City
Quebec, Canada; 3 Materials Research Centre, University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom; 4 Section of
Materials Science & Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, National Technical University of
Athens, Zografou Campus, Greece.
The objective of this study was to investigate different defects and material systems (notches or
delaminations under carbon or boron composite patching bonded with FM73 adhesive film to the surface of
Al 2024-T3) using several thermal non-destructive testing and evaluation techniques. Active thermographic
approaches, using, firstly, a simple heat excitation source with an infrared camera, secondly, an integrated
pulsed thermographic system, thirdly, pulsed phase thermography and lastly, thermal modelling, were used
in the inspection of the composite aircraft repaired panels. In all situations the subsurface defects, were
positioned intentionally. After the detection of the defects, representative images obtained from the
thermographic investigation underwent quantitative analysis with the intention of obtaining information
about the defects in space and in time.
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