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Delamination Defect Evaluation in CFRP Composite Patches by the Use of Active Thermography

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Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites (CFRPs) are widely used as repairing patches in the aerospace, automotive and oil and gas industries. Defects in the process of repairing with patches are in most cases inevitable. In this study, the effects of depth and dimension of separation defects on the intensity of thermal effect were investigated and evaluated by pulse thermography. Specimens made for testing were carbon fiber sheets that were patched onto the aluminum plate. In order to model the defects in different layers, edges, and center of the patch, interlayer separation was done by inserting kepton sheets between two samples with 4 and 8 layers of carbon laminates. The manufactured samples containing defects were then heated by the use of flash light and observed using the IR camera. The thermographic images and intensity plots were then compared for each sample. The results showed that there is a minor difference between results obtained by thermal images and plots for both defect size and the thermal intensity in the 4 layer patch sample. As for the 8 layer sample, the defect size differences % and the thermal intensity in the interfacial layer between Al-CFRP and sixth layer in the CFRP were higher. It was also found that the base metal has a significant influence on the identification of defects.

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Acknowledgements

All thermography tests were carried out at the Welding and Nondestructive Testing Applied Research Center of the University of Tehran (TWN) and hereby it is appreciated to provide the laboratory with the opportunity to conduct experiments and studies in this research.

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This research was conducted by personal support and there is no funding.

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  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, 11155-4563, Tehran, Iran

    Amirreza Ardebili & Mohammadreza Farahani

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  1. Amirreza Ardebili
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AA is the researcher who work under the supervision of MF.

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Correspondence to Mohammadreza Farahani.

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Dr. Mohammadreza Farahani is the responsible author and there is no conflicts of interest in this research.

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Ardebili, A., Farahani, M. Delamination Defect Evaluation in CFRP Composite Patches by the Use of Active Thermography. J Nondestruct Eval 41, 61 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10921-022-00892-z

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