Shearography and thermography non-destructive testing of composite materials using embedded carbon nanotube (CNT) strips as heaters

The objective of this work is to study defect detection efficacy using embedded carbon nanotube (CNT) fibers as heaters for shearography and thermography. For that, GFRP laminates with various amounts of CNT-doped strips embedded at different layers have been manufactured. Impact tests are performed to create realistic damage in the GFRP specimens for inspection. Shearography and thermography non-destructive testing of the GFRP laminates are performed simultaneously with embedded CNT strips as heating sources before and after the impact test. This research was performed as part of the Horizon Europe COMP-ECO project (grant agreement 101079250). In the future, we aim at developing a novel demonstrator of a composite aerospace structure with integrated CNT-doped sensors that support NDT and enable self-sensing and in-situ SHM capabilities.