Press Composite materials are increasingly used in the aerospace industry. To fully realize the weight saving potential along with superior mechanical properties that composites offer in safety critical applications, reliable Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) methods are required to prevent catastrophic failures.
Composite materials could have a complex net of matrix cracking and delaminations either inside or on the back surface, without modifying the top surface of the structure. The danger of such damage is that they are invisible on the surface and, in most cases, cannot be easily detected during visual inspections. Thus, NDT is more important in such cases.
Source: Successes and challenges in non-destructive testing of aircraft composite structures – ScienceDirect
