Laser ultrasound flexible system for non-contact inspection of medium size and complex shaped composite structures made of carbon fiber reinforced polymer

We present the development of a contactless laser ultrasound system for nondestructive inspection of CFRP complex structures. Ultrasound are generated by a thermoelastic effect resulting from a green pulsed laser insulating a point of the inspected part. The resulting displacement of the surface point is probed by a two-wave mixing based interferometer working in the near infrared. The system is flexible and completely fiber-coupled. It is able to provide C-scans on complex shaped CFRP aeronautical structures.