Detecting inclusions and disbonds in green material repairs with thermography

A system, comprising:

• a work surface for arranging and compacting uncured composite layers;
• a heat source arranged relative to the surface and operable to provide a burst of thermal energy to a surface of uncured compacted composite layers on the work surface;
• a thermographic digital camera arranged relative to the surface and operable to capture at least one digital thermographic image of the surface of uncured compacted composite layers on the work surface;
• a computer processor in communication with the thermographic digital camera and the heat source;
• and
• a computer memory containing a program that, when executed on the computer processor, performs an operation for processing data, comprising:
• outputting a signal to the heat source to apply a burst of thermal energy to a surface of uncured compacted composite layers;
• capturing at least one digital thermographic image of the surface of the uncured compacted composite layers after applying the burst of thermal energy;
• analyzing at least one heat characteristic of regions of the uncured compacted composite layers in the at least one digital thermographic image to identify defect regions in which the at least one heat characteristic is different than surrounding regions;
• and
• upon identifying a defect region, outputting an alert.

A method, comprising:

• arranging and compacting a plurality of uncured composite layers;
• applying a burst of thermal energy to a surface of the plurality of uncured compacted composite layers;
• capturing at least one digital thermographic image of the surface of the uncured compacted composite layers after applying the burst of thermal energy;
• using a computer processor, analyzing at least one heat characteristic of regions of the uncured compacted composite layers in the at least one digital thermographic image to identify defect regions in which the at least one heat characteristic is different than surrounding regions;
• upon identifying a defect region:
• outputting an alert;
• and
• performing a repair operation on the defect region.