In-Situ Monitoring of Damage Evolution in Glass Matrix Composites during Cyclic Loading using Nondestructive Techniques

Infrared thermography is a powerful non-destructive testing technique which can be used for the detection of damage in advanced materials such as ceramic matrix composites. The purpose of this study is to apply a non-destructive methodology for analyzing, in real-time, the thermal effects in ceramic matrix composites caused by cyclic loading. Mechanical stresses induced by cyclic loading cause heat release in the composite due to failure of the interface, which results in increasing the material's temperature. The heat waves, generated by the thermo-mechanical coupling, and the intrinsic energy dissipated during mechanical cyclic loading of the specimen, were detected by an infrared camera. The results were correlated with acoustic emission events that occurred during the damage accumulation process of the material.