Enhanced Thermographic Detection of Delaminations with Computational Pulse Shaping

Thermal Nondestructive Testing (TNDT) is an increasingly common technique for detecting delaminations in structures[l–7]. Typically, TNDT uses radiative heaters such as flash or quartz lamps to heat the specimen. Before during and after radiative heating, an infrared imager measures the surface temperature. Since this process is a noncontacting and imaging method, it has several advantages over conventional contacting techniques. It is able to rapidly inspect a square meter of structure in minutes. It also is easy to inspect curve surfaces. A principle disadvantage is its lack of sensitivity to delaminations at depths greater than 1/2 the thickness of the structure