9 th International Conference on Quantitative InfraRed Thermography July 2 - 5 , 2008 , Krakow - Poland Detecting flaws

Composites are presently the most developing and particularly attractive special-purpose construction materials for ballistic applications, among others. They are the basic raw materials used in the production of composite ballistic shields, such as shrapnel and bullet-proof helmets, means of transport armour, bullet-proof shields, explosion protection, additional ballistic insets for shrapnel and bullet-proof vests, etc. The term “composite” means a non-homogeneous material structure. Composites may be composed of metal and non-metal materials used in various combinations. By selecting the right components, you can obtain a composite material that has the required properties and therefore allows to achieve benefits like lower weight, greater impact strength and better energy absorption. The above properties are strongly impaired if a composite develops defects (in the technological process as well as subsequent use) such as ply separation, air bubbles and delamination, which are usually created as a result of impacts. The Authors propose a thermal model of a composite material with introduced defects, which allowed to conduct a series of computer simulations to locate the inclusions and decrements in the composite [1,2,4-6,9-10].