Thermographic investigation of sandwich structure made of composite material

In this paper an experimental procedure, by means of thermographic technique, was set up in order to detect some typical defects, which could be found in composite material sandwich structures. The material thermal response was investigated for different artificially defects inserted in some specimens: every kind of defect was listed. Then the experimental procedure was applied to study a wind-turbine blade made of sandwich composite structure. The results fulfilled the expectations and confirmed the reliability of the thermographic technique to be used both in laboratory and in service. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.