Detection of Thin Inclusions in Skin Sheets of Composite Sandwich Panels Using an In-house Shearography System

Previously, the capability of the in-house developed system was demonstrated for the NDT of several defects. Those defects included skin-to-core debonds and delamination of the composite skin sheets of honeycomb-composite sandwich panels. This paper presents an innovative use of the in-house system wherein thin inclusions have been identified in the skin sheets of honeycomb-composite panels. The quality and reliability of defect identification with the in-house system were at par with the defect signatures obtained with one commercial system. The inputs from this work are thus implemented for the NDT of the actual hardware with good confidence.