Nondestructive evaluation of carbon fiber bicycle frames using infrared thermography

Abstract

Bicycle frames made of carbon fibre are extremely popular for high-performance cycling due to the stiffness-to-weight ratio, which enables greater power transfer. However, products manufactured using carbon fibre are sensitive to impact damage. Therefore, intelligent nondestructive evaluation is a required step to prevent failures and ensure a secure usage of the bicycle. This work proposes an inspection method based on active thermography, a proven technique successfully applied to other materials. Different configurations for the inspection are tested, including power and heating time. Moreover, experiments are applied to a real bicycle frame with generated impact damage of different energies. Tests show excellent results, detecting the generated damage during the inspection. When the results are combined with advanced image post-processing methods, the SNR is greatly increased, and the size and localization of the defects are clearly visible in the images.