The composite materials are widely used in industry because of their high mechanical resistance and low density. The diversity of composite materials application fields gives rise to a large variety of solicitation and damage conditions. For this reason, the evaluation of their properties and their health monitoring are of great industrial interest. In this work, a new method of evaluation and non-destructive testing named sonothermography is explored. This method is based on the analysis of thermal fields induced by ultrasonic waves in absorbent materials such as composites. Two additional applications are studied: the evaluation of the thermal properties of the material and the non-destructive testing of structures by infrared thermography. In this framework, the direct problem of sonothermography is solved numerically using a model based on the finite element method. This model allows to simulate the thermal field induced by the propagation of ultrasonic waves in absorbent material whose properties are known. The simulations carried out show the applicability of the sonothermography for the detection of defects. An innovative approach for thermal characterization is also developed. This approach based on the weak formulation of the heat conduction equation allows a robust estimate of the thermal diffusivity of the material from the thermal field induced by ultrasonic waves. Experimental results are presented for thin plates.
