Thermal Wave Imaging of Hidden Corrosion
Abstract
A program of basic research was carried out, whose objective was to make the promising qualitative thermal wave imaging NDI technique a truly quantitative tool, which can have a major impact on the rapid, wide-area inspection of Air Force aircraft for hidden corrosion. Such thermal wave images of a square foot (or so) of aircraft skin are acquired on short time scales (a few seconds). Techniques were developed and studied to measure skin thickness and to identify corrosion products. The resulting corrosion analysis has been shown to have a quantitative capability of measuring material losses as small as 1% on aluminum aircraft skins, and can be implemented rapidly to evaluate regions of corrosion which have been identified in the thermal wave images. The technique has also been shown to be capable of measuring intergranular corrosion in the vicinity of fasteners in KC-135 and B-52 wing skins.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 03, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA343638
Entities
People
- Lawrence D. Favro
- Pao-kuang Kuo
- Robert L. Thomas
Organizations
- Wayne State University