Continuous wave terahertz inspection of glass fiber reinforced plastics with semi-automatic 3-D image processing for enhanced defect detection
 
Continuous wave terahertz inspection of glass fiber reinforced plastics with semi-automatic 3-D image processing for enhanced defect detection 
 
Fabian Friederich, Edison Cristofani, Carsten Matheis, Joachim Jonuscheit, Rene Beigang, Marijke Vandewal
 
Abstract 

The increasing industrial application of fiber reinforced plastics demands developments of new techniques for non-destructive testing. The sub-terahertz frequency band has proved to be a noteworthy option for this task. Composite structures or laminates can be inspected for foreign inclusions, delaminations, debonds, etc., using sub-terahertz sensors during the manufacturing process or maintenance. In this contribution we present our results using a frequency modulated continuous wave terahertz imaging system in comparison with conventional NDT measurements on several different GFRP samples. Thereby a semi-automatic terahertz image processing approach for enhanced defect detection is applied.