Fast, Accurate, and Reliable Detection of Damage in Aircraft Composites by Advanced Synergistic Infrared Thermography and Phased Array Techniques

Janardhan Padiyar M,Luca Zanotti Fragonara,Iain Gray,Ivan Petrunin,Dimitrios Exarchos,Spyridoyla Farmaki,Theodore E Matikas,Antonios Tsourdos,Joao Raposo,Konstantinos G Dassios

doi:10.3390/app11062778

Janardhan Padiyar M, Luca Zanotti Fragonara + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/app11062778

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Abstract

This paper presents an advanced methodology for the detection of damage in aircraft composite materials based on the sensor fusion of two image-based non-destructive evaluation techniques. Both of the techniques, phased-array ultrasonics and infra-red thermography, are benchmarked on an aircraft-grade painted composite material skin panel with stringers. The sensors systems for carrying out the inspections have been developed and miniaturized for being integrated on a vortex-robotic platform inspector, in the framework of a larger research initiative, the Horizon-2020 ‘CompInnova’ project.

Highlights

New-generation wide-body civilian aircrafts, such as Dreamliner Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 series, are manufactured from Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) composites at a much higher percentage than compared to narrow-body aircrafts; relevant outer parts include their wing skins and fuselage skins
The synergistic Pulsed Phase-informed Lock-in Thermography (PPI-lock-in thermography (LT))/Phased Array (PA) strategy minimizes the timescale that is required for reliable aircraft inspection by the preferential application of PA inspection, for thorough damage characterization, only to areas previously identified with damage presence by rapid widearea infrared thermography (IRT)
A synergistic strategy that was based on infrared thermography and phased array was presented for the rapid and, at the same time, accurate and reliable detection of damage in aircraft composites

Summary

Introduction

New-generation wide-body civilian aircrafts, such as Dreamliner Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 series, are manufactured from Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs) composites at a much higher percentage than compared to narrow-body aircrafts; relevant outer parts include their wing skins and fuselage skins. Manual point-topoint inspection using conventional ultrasonic transducer and line-by-line Phased Array (PA) wheel probe [4] are used as a fundamental quantitative method, as per schedule-based maintenance for in-service inspections of composite skin surfaces. Such inspections are tactical and categorized in A-, C-, and D- checks, depending on the level of detail with respect to the aircraft age, hours in service, and the number of landing/take-off cycles. D-checks are the most thorough, involving a series of extremely detailed inspections of the fuselage skin and wing skin surfaces, requiring a minimum defect detectability of 6 × 6 mm, and carried out approximately every six years. The application of these scanners is limited by the length of the scanner arms and it needs to be moved and fixed sequentially to cover a large area, increasing the time that is required for inspection

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