Defect Detection in Delaminated Glass-Fibre/Epoxy Composite Plates Using Local Defect Resonance Based Vibro-Thermography Technique

Abstract

In the present scenario, composites are widely used for various applications in the field of aerospace, automobile, marine, sports, construction and electrical industries. The need of damage inspection for these composite structures has been of great importance. Complicated defects like delaminations present in the composite laminates can be detected effectively using nonlinear acoustic wave spectroscopy (NAWS). One of the NAWS techniques of detecting the delamination is based on intensification of vibration amplitudes at the delamination location, known as local defect resonance (LDR) technique. In this chapter, a numerical investigation for detecting delamination in glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite based on vibrothermography technique will be discussed. A single periodic LDR frequency excitation is used to excite the GFRP plate, resulting in a local temperature rise at delamination region due to frictional heating at the damage interface. An explicit dynamic temperature displacement analysis will be carried out for a specific time period of LDR excitation. Subsequently, a heat transfer analysis will be performed to observe the temperature difference at top surface of the delaminated GFRP plate. Thus a numerical investigation will be carried out based on LDR excitation for high contrast imaging of delamination in composite materials using vibro-thermography.