Automated Early Fatigue Damage Sensing System

Abstract

Structural fatigue testing plays a vital role in assuring the long term integrity of aerospace vehicles and components. However, substantial uncertainty involving large-scale complex structural tests does exist due to their inherent one shot nature. Crack propagation not revealed by a catastrophic failure during a single test can cause structural problems later in production aircraft. The overall objective of this program was to develop a reliable nondestructive testing system for the detection of initiating cracks generated during structural fatigue testing. The goals were to (1) detect cracks as small as 0.050 in. in complex structures and (2) develop a detection system that could be operated by technician-level personnel typically assigned to structural test areas. Keywords: Acoustic emission, Fatigue cracks, Structural test, Fatigue damage, Non destructive testing, Automation, Computer graphics, Ultrasonics, Titanium alloys, Steel, Aluminum alloys.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1988
Accession Number
ADA195717

Entities

People

  • Alan Hencken
  • Michael Horn

Organizations

  • Grumman

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aeronautical Laboratories
  • Air Force
  • Computer Graphics
  • Computer Programming
  • Computers
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Display Systems
  • Monitors
  • Nondestructive Testing
  • Procurement
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Test Equipment
  • Titanium
  • Two Dimensional
  • User Interface
  • Waveforms

Readers

  • Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Structures.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Space