Identification of Lightning Strike Damage Severity Using Pulse Thermography through Integration of Thermal Data

Tim M. Harrell; J. M. Dulieu-Barton; O. T. Thomsen

doi:10.1007/s40799-024-00713-0

Identification of Lightning Strike Damage Severity Using Pulse Thermography through Integration of Thermal Data

Tim M. Harrell, J. M. Dulieu-Barton, O. T. Thomsen

University of Bristol

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) structures, e.g., wind turbine blades, are suspectable to direct lightning strikes due to their semiconductive nature and ability to conduct current. It is critical to identify and evaluate lightning damage as it can cause premature failure of the primary load carrying components. Direct strike lightning damage has been traditionally identified and assessed by ultrasonic (UT) inspection, which is time consuming, usually requires contact, and does not directly provide a measure of damage severity. An appealing alternative to UT is pulsed thermography (PT), which takes minutes to conduct rather than hours and does not require a couplant. The aim of this work is to explore the application of pulse thermography to identify and evaluate the damage state of CFRP panels damaged by simulated lightning strike. A new analysis technique is presented that provides a damage severity metric which allows damage to be categorized, separated, and quantified.

Original language	English
Number of pages	11
Journal	Experimental Techniques
Early online date	21 May 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s40799-024-00713-0
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 21 May 2024

Funding

This work was sponsored by the Marie Sk\u0142odowska Curie Actions, Innovative Training Networks (ITN), Call: H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014, as part of the 642771 \u201CLightning protection of wind turbine blades with carbon fibre composite materials\u201D SPARCARB project. The work described in this paper was conducted in the Testing and Structures Research Laboratory (TSRL) at the University of Southampton, and the authors are grateful for the support received from Dr Andy Robinson, the TSRL Experimental Officer.

Funders	Funder number
H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions	642771, H2020-MSCA-ITN-2014

Keywords

CFRP composite materials
Direct lightning strike damage
Non-destructive evaluation (NDE)
Pulse thermography
Thermography integration

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Mechanics of Materials
Mechanical Engineering

Access to Document

10.1007/s40799-024-00713-0Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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Identification of Lightning Strike Damage Severity Using Pulse Thermography through Integration of Thermal Data

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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