Non destructive techniques for the impact damage investigation on carbon fibre laminates

Ultra sound technique (US), thermography and holography were adopted to investigate the delamination in carbon fibre laminates after low velocity impact loads. The scope was to investigate the ability of new tools in giving information about internal damage on composites. The carbon laminates were fabricated by a new vacuum assisted technology, labelled as "pulsed infusion". The efficiency of this innovative fabrication technology was studied too, comparing the delamination extensions with the measurements from literature on impacted autoclave cured laminates.