Artificial defects in CFRP composite structure for Thermography and Shearography nondestructive inspection

Locating defects in CFRP composite materials is a hot topic in nondestructive inspection (NDI). Beside classical NDI technique, such as ultrasound testing (UT), contactless techniques are actively studied. Generally manufacturers of CFRP structure incorporate artificial defects in the bulk, with different extents and depths, in order to study the performance of a specific NDI technique to detect the defect. One of the most common defects in CFRP is delamination between two layers. This is simulated by inserting teflon sheets which, like air, acts as ultrasound blocker in UT. When such reference part is used to assess NDI performance of thermography or shearography, we only observe respectively the thermal or mechanical response of teflon with respect to external loading used with these techniques. In this work, we assess other possibilities for artificial defects in CFRP matrix. For that a CFRP structure was developed and which incorporates teflon, flat-bottom holes and delamination obtained by the pull-out method. We experimentally studied the signals and we discuss the difference between the various artificial defects methods.