Thermographic nondestructive testing of polymeric composite sandwich panels

Thermographic nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques are developed for polymeric composite sandwich panels. The one dimensional heat transfer across these panels is modeled and theoretical solutions are formulated. The temperature distributions through and on the front and back surfaces of panels consisting of an arbitrary number of layers are derived. Numerical examples are used to illustrate these thermographic NDT techniques for characterizing laminar anomalies within the panels, during both heating and cooling. A procedure to completely characterize such anomalies is presented.