Thermographic investigation of sandwich structure made of composite material

In this paper an experimental procedure, by means of thermographic techniqu e, was set up in order to detect some typical defects, which could be found in composite material sandwich structures. The material thermal response w as investigated for different artificially defects inserted in some specime ns: every kind of defect was listed. Then the experimental procedure was ap plied to study a wind-turbine blade made of sandwich composite structure. T he results fulfilled the expectations and confirmed the reliability of the thermographic technique to be used both in laboratory and in service. (C) 2 001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.