Coupling infrared thermography and acoustic emission for damage study in CFRP composites

Improvement of the design and reliability of aeronautical composite structures requires an identification and characterization of their damage evolution. By providing surface thermal fields, infrared thermography has allowed considerable progress in the detection of degradation phenomena. On the other hand, acoustic emission is employed to record the transient waves resulting from released energy during a damage process. This study intends to combine simultaneously these nondestructive methods to investigate the damage behaviour of carbon-fibre composites under tensile load. Experimental results show some correlations between thermal and acoustic events induced by the load according to the damage development.