To estimate the disbond defects of the carbon fiber composite materials with honeycomb sandwich structure applied in the aerospace, active infrared thermographic NDT (non-destructive testing) is researched. The specimen with known disbond defects is detected by an active infrared thermography system. The specimen is stimulated by a pulse heating source. Based on the thermal wave propagation theory, the surface temperature of the specimen contained defects will differ from the surrounding sound area because of their different thermal-physical properties. The surface temperature is monitored using infrared camera and analyzed by a computer in the time domain. The experiment results show that the active infrared thermographic NDT is rapid, effective and intuitive for detecting the disbond defects in composite materials with honeycomb sandwich structure.

To detect the delamination, disbond，inclusion defects of the glass fiber composite materials applied in the solid rocket motor, active infrared thermographic non-destructive testing(NDT) is researched. The samples including known defects are heated by pulsed high energy flash lamp. The surface temperature of the samples is monitored by infrared thermography camera. The results of the experiments show that the active infrared thermography technique is a fast and effective inspection method for detecting the defects of delamination, disbond，inclusion of the composites. The samples are also detected by underwater ultrasonic c-scans. The paper concludes that the active infrared thermography NDT is more suitable to rapidly detect the defect in large-area and the underwater ultrasonic c-scans is more suitable to quantitatively identify the defect in local-area.