Pulsed stimulated infrared thermography is a .powerful technique for the detection of thermally resistive defects in materials. Time-resolved analysis of the surface temperature field can then be used for the identification of· the defect characteristics (mainly its depth, its lateral size and its thermal resistance). Several such inversion procedures were proposed in the past. They are based either on a 1-0 or on a 2-to-30 modelling of thermal transfer in the inspected material. In this paper

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... e describe a new 1-0 procedure for the defect geometry characterization (depth and lateral size). Compared to previous 1-0 methods, it is less sensitive to lateral diffusion. It however retains their high speed. Nomenclature Our purpose was to define a defect identification method suited for multi-delaminations like those found in composite laminates when they were submitted to a strong enough impact: Such defects appear as delaminations located between several couple of plies. Their shape varies with depth and their size often increases from front face to rear face. Users of such composite materials are anxious, first to detect such anomalies (internal damage can be severe without, sometimes, any sign on the external impacted face), and then to evaluate their size in order either to decide on the replacement of the damaged part, or to correctly perform the eventual repair.