Structural damage assessment in composite material using laser Doppler vibrometry

In recent years, a great effort has been done to improve damage detection techniques in structures by using vibration measurements. This paper presents a case where a non-contact measurement system, a Scanning Laser Doppler Vibrometer, has been used to detect delaminations in a composite material plate. The diagnostic technique is the evolution of a methodology previously approached by the authors. An in-house made software has been produced for data acquisition and vibrometer control. The maps of the detected defects are presented, thus allowing the assessment of the performances of this methodology to detect damages. This analysis permitted to outline the main points to be improved in the future investigations.