Impact damage evaluation in composites with infrared thermography

The aim of the present paper is to investigate the behaviour of a glass fibres reinforced polymer to impact load with infrared thermography. Several specimens are prepared from unidirectional E-glass fibres embedded in epoxy resin matrix with symmetrical staking sequence [02/904]S. These specimens are first non-destructively inspected with lock-in thermography to search for manufacturing defects; then, they are impacted at different energy values in the range 8-24 Joule and subsequently each impacted specimen is again inspected with lock-in thermography. The ThermaCam SC3000 infrared camera is used for both on-line monitoring and non destructive evaluation. The obtained results supply useful information for the material characterization and for estimation of the damage extension through the thickness and in plane for a given depth