The detection of cracks in damaged composite materials

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Abstract
The detection of cracks in fibre reinforced plastics is becoming more important as these materials are being used increasingly in load-bearing applications. The authors describe how the measurement of specific damping capacity can be used to detect very small cracks in unidirectional glass-fibre-reinforced polyester resin. This technique allowed the unambiguous detection of very small 'cracks', invisible to the naked eye, as well as the detection of small visible cracks, which could not be detected by an alternative technique using an infrared camera.