Efficient detection of production defects in a CFRP aircraft component by means of flash infrared thermography

Flash thermography is a promising technique to perform quick and non-contact non-destructive testing of composite materials. However, several limitations such as non-uniform heating and lateral heat diffusion complicate the accurateness of this technique. This paper presents an experimental case study of flash thermography for the non-destructive testing of a CFRP component of an aircraft with production defects. Three post-processing techniques, namely Differential Absolute Contrast (DAC), Pulsed Phase Thermography (PPT) and Principal Component Thermography (PCT), are applied to the recorded dataset. A qualitative comparison between these processing techniques is performed based on their defect enhancement capabilities in a component with industrial complexity.