OPTONDT Noncontact damage imaging in composite structures based on laser techniques
Project no. LIDER/2/0117/L-7/15/NCBR/2016
We have developed a laser-based diagnostic system for nondestructive testing of thin-walled structural composites, widely used in the aircraft and aerospace industries. The test system can be deployed in a fully non-contact setup including laser excitation of the ultrasonic guided waves and laser-based acquisition of the wavefield. The data is captured in full-field and processed in the developed software package with use of a novel nondestructive testing approach based on the acoustic wavenumber spectroscopy. The technique analyzes guided waves propagation in order to extract features representing damage. Diagnostic results are presented in the form of the local wavenumber maps overlayed on the image of the test structure thus easily interpretable. The system fills the gap between the available local and global nondestructive testing approaches.