Metrological characteristics of methods for the inspection of composite material components

An investigation for different Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE) techniques, namely a vision-based method, thermography, and ultrasound inspection, to characterize defects and characteristics of composite materials, is presented. The aim of the work is to compare the results in terms of resolution, sensitivity, measuring threshold, uncertainty and errors, with reference to different defects of interest; possibility of automation, speed of execution, computational load are further aspects to discuss. This comparison appears to be useful in order to study a possible integration of the instrumentation, for a complete analysis of the material. The ultimate goal is the optimization, based on the measurement results, of a filament winding process for the production of cylindrical components.