THERMAL CHARACTERIZATION AND TOMOGRAPHY OF CARBON-FIBER-REINFORCED PLASTICS USING INDIVIDUAL IDENTIFICATION TECHNIQUE

A method for thermal characterization of defect depth and thickness us ing individual inversion functions is described. Experimental results are obtained with standard carbon fiber reinforced plastic specimens w hich contained Teflon inserts and impact damage. Accuracy in determini ng defect dimensions was about 10 percent for defect depth and 33 perc ent for defect thickness. A technique to synthesize images of defect p arameters is proposed. Thermal tomography advantages in analyzing defe ct in-depth propagation are illustrated.