The development and application of advanced materials, whether composite, metal matrix or ceramic, has progressed to a point where qualitative non-destructive inspection of components is no longer sufficient. As confidence in the validity of material properties increases, structures utilizing these advanced materials will be designed without the excessive safety factors characteristic of earlier structures utilizing the same materials. While this trend has the advantage of economizing on the use of the advanced, expensive materials, it underscores the need to quantify the flaw structure of advanced material components so that accurate, flawed material thermostructural response can be predicted and so that a quantified accept/reject criteria for a given component can be established.