Bonded repair issues for composites: An investigation approach based on infrared thermography

An original approach based on active Infrared Thermography (IT) addresses the very challenging issue of the nondestructive analysis of bonded repaired CFRP laminates. Difficulties come from the weak property contrast between parts of repaired assemblies and thickness of the joint. Strong attention is given here to the control of experimental tests conditions (heat load, boundary conditions), which allows to develop a physically consistent numerical model of the thermal problem. Comparison between measured and simulated surface temperature fields shows very good agreement regarding temporal and spatial evolutions for composites with different lay-up and offers new solutions for the NonDestructive Testing (NDT) of bonded repaired composites.