NDT in the Aircraft and Space Industries

Industrial inspection of parts produced has the objective to detect and locate defects during manufacturing, assess quality and further predict damage/failure during service. Aircraft manufacturers use novel structural materials, including composites and cellular structures, which are characterized by high strength-to-weight ratio. Development of new composite materials requires innovative inspection systems to comply with customer demands for a reliable and fast inspection of complex parts. Typical failure in an aircraft part occurs due to either manufacturing failure or fatigue failure. Nondestructive testing (NDT) is a powerful tool used in aerospace and allied industries for detecting and analyzing structural failure and damage to parts. Most commonly used NDT methods in aerospace industries are eddy current testing (ECT), fluorescent penetration inspection, infrared and thermography, ultrasonic testing, acoustic emission, shearography, and radiographic tests (X-ray computed tomography CT). These techniques are described in brief with some applications in aerospace industries.

[1]  X. Maldague,et al.  Aircraft composites assessment by means of transient thermal NDT , 2004 .

[2]  Krzysztof Dragan,et al.  Damage identification in aircraft composite structures: A case study using various non-destructive testing techniques , 2015 .

[3]  V. P. Vavilov,et al.  Review of pulsed thermal NDT: Physical principles, theory and data processing , 2015 .

[4]  S. W. Glass,et al.  Automated NDT Machines for CFC Parts of the New Airbus A350XWB , 2013 .

[5]  Marie Bohacova.  Methodology of short fatigue crack detection by the eddy current method in a multi-layered metal aircraft structure , 2013 .

[6]  Ettore Massera,et al.  Electronic Nose as an NDT Tool for Aerospace Industry , 2015 .

[7]  David K. Hsu.  NONDESTRUCTIVE INSPECTION OF COMPOSITE STRUCTURES: METHODS AND PRACTICE , 2008 .

[8]  D. Dastarac,et al.  Use of computed tomography slices 3D-reconstruction as a powerful tool to improve manufacturing processes on aeroengine components , 2000 .

[9]  Floyd W. Spencer.  Detection Reliability for Small Cracks Beneath Rivet Heads Using Eddy-Current Nondestructive Inspection Techniques , 1998 .

[10]  David Devillers,et al.  Shearographic imaging of the ultrasonic wave and defect interaction in plates: Comparison between computation and experiment , 2000 .

[11]  Y. Y. Hung,et al.  NDT&E using shearography with impulsive thermal stressing and clustering phase extraction , 2009 .

[12]  Constantinos Soutis,et al.  Structural health monitoring techniques for aircraft composite structures , 2010 .