Pulsed micro-laser line thermography on submillimeter porosity in carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites: experimental and numerical analyses for the capability of detection

In this article, pulsed micro-laser line thermography (pulsed micro-LLT) was used to detect the submillimeter porosities in a 3D preformed carbon fiber reinforced polymer composite specimen. X-ray microcomputed tomography was used to verify the thermographic results. Then, finite element analysis was performed on the corresponding models on the basis of the experimental results. The same infrared image processing techniques were used for the experimental and simulation results for comparative purposes. Finally, a comparison of experimental and simulation postprocessing results was conducted. In addition, an analysis of probability of detection was performed to evaluate the detection capability of pulsed micro-LLT on submillimeter porosity. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America