Carbon contrast agents for terahertz spectroscopic NDT of impacted glass fibre reinforced plastics

Impact damage poses a significant challenge for composite materials since it is often subsurface and hard to detect, necessitating effective assessment approaches. Traditional NDT methods face challenges in identifying this specific type of damage. In this study, a departure from traditional NDT approaches was taken by utilizing THz spectroscopy to detect impact damage. Three different lay-ups of GFRP laminates were studied; GFRP with non-woven carbon fibre veil, GFRP coated with MWCNTs, and plain GFRP. Impact tests were conducted ranging from 5, 12 and 20 J in energy and 2D images were then acquired It was found that the inclusion of the MWCNTs and carbon veil gave superior image contrast compared to plain GFRP. Furthermore, the damaged area observed in the images increased with impact energy across all configurations. The outcomes derived from THz spectroscopy were benchmarked against those from ultrasound testing. THz spectroscopy demonstrates greater promise as a highly effective technique for detecting impact damage using carbon materials, offering advantages over traditional NDT methods due to its distinct wavelength, portability, non-contact capability, capacity to depict fibre alignment, lack of additional calibration specimens and coupling agents, and its ability to partially uncover the scope of impact damage.