Monitoring Delamination Growth In Cfrp Materials Using Eddy Currents

Delamination can occur in composite materials either at the manufacturing level or during in-service applications. Such defects may be due to interlaminar shear stresses greater than a threshold stress value and may reduce the compressive strength and fatigue life of a composite. Furthermore, delamination may grow under service load and induce a loss in the residual strength of a structure. Thus, understanding the process of delamination growth may help in understanding the failure mechanisms involved in composite Materials and improve safety limits. Therefore, a non-destructive inspection technique capable of accurately detecting and quantifying delamination is required. In this article, it is demonstrated that a commercial eddy current instrument could be used to accurately detect and quantify delamination in a carbon fibre reinforced composite sample. The feasibility of monitoring delamination growth in such materials is also shown.