Disbond monitoring at wing stringer tip based on built-in ultrasonic transducers and a pulsed laser

An active ultrasonic diagnostic method for monitoring the occurrence and growth of a disbond at a wing stringer tip was developed and verified using built-in piezoelectric lead-zirconate-titanate transducers. The diagnosis was based on the ultrasonic arrival time delay caused by an increase in the disbond-induced wave path and can provide quantitative information on the disbond length. The change in the ultrasonic amplitude, which is a conventional measure for disbond detection, was also included in the diagnostics. Finally a single transmission and multiple reception method was used to obtain the arrival time and amplitude distributions. Another active ultrasonic diagnostic tool based on a pulsed laser ultrasonic generation was proposed for a nondestructive evaluation to obtain more reliable results on the damage detected using the built-in transducers. The diagnostics were verified using a metal skin-stringer structure as an experimental model, and then applied to monitoring the disbond at a stringer tip in a composite wingbox.

[1]  Richard J. Dewhurst,et al.  Estimation of the thickness of thin metal sheet using laser generated ultrasound , 1987 .

[2]  Fabrizio Scarpa,et al.  Structural health monitoring using scanning laser vibrometry: III. Lamb waves for fatigue crack detection , 2004 .

[3]  Chang-Sun Hong,et al.  Buckling behavior monitoring of composite wing box model using fiber Bragg grating sensor system , 2001, SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring.

[4]  V. Giurgiutiu.  Tuned Lamb Wave Excitation and Detection with Piezoelectric Wafer Active Sensors for Structural Health Monitoring , 2005 .

[5]  Massimo Ruzzene,et al.  Simulation and Measurement of Ultrasonic Waves in Elastic Plates Using Laser Vibrometry , 2005 .

[6]  D. Greve,et al.  Generation and detection of guided waves using PZT wafer transducers , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control.

[7]  Carlos E. S. Cesnik,et al.  Modeling of piezoelectric-based Lamb wave generation and sensing for structural health monitoring , 2004, SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring.

[8]  Victor Giurgiutiu,et al.  Disbond detection in adhesively bonded structures using piezoelectric wafer active sensors , 2004, SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring.

[9]  E. Moulin,et al.  Health monitoring of a composite wingbox structure. , 2004, Ultrasonics.

[10]  Jennifer E. Michaels,et al.  APPLICATION OF ACOUSTIC WAVEFIELD IMAGING TO NON-CONTACT ULTRASONIC INSPECTION OF BONDED COMPONENTS , 2006 .

[11]  Pierre J. A. Minguet,et al.  Testing and Analysis of Composite Skin/Stringer Debonding Under Multi-Axial Loading , 1999 .

[12]  A. Higgins.  Adhesive bonding of aircraft structures , 2000 .

[13]  Christ Glorieux,et al.  Laser ultrasonic study of Lamb waves: determination of the thickness and velocities of a thin plate , 2003 .

[14]  Ivan Bartoli,et al.  Ultrasonic guided wave monitoring of composite wing skin-to-spar bonded joints in aerospace structures , 2005 .

[15]  Ronald Krueger,et al.  Analysis of Composite Skin-Stiffener Debond Specimens Using a Shell/3D Modeling Technique and Submodeling , 2004 .

[16]  G. S. Taylor,et al.  Laser-generated ultrasound: its properties, mechanisms and multifarious applications , 1993 .

[17]  Fabrizio Scarpa,et al.  Structural health monitoring using scanning laser vibrometry: I. Lamb wave sensing , 2004 .

[18]  Sridhar Krishnaswamy,et al.  Interaction of a scanning laser-generated ultrasonic line source with a surface-breaking flaw. , 2004, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.