Estimating the Distribution of the Sizes Of Flaws Remaining After an Inspection (Preprint)
Abstract
The U.S. Air Force plans for maintenance and retirement of aircraft based in part on fatigue crack growth models. Periodic inspections are used to help assess airworthiness and plan for future inspections. Nondestructive inspections are not perfect so some cracks are missed and the likelihood that an individual crack is detected is a function of the size of the crack when inspected. Additionally, the crack size distribution is related to the number of flight hours the aircraft has experienced, so not all inspection results come from the same distribution. In a recent study several models were compared that utilize the capability of the inspection system and the variation between aircraft and times of inspections to estimate the distribution of sizes of cracks that were missed during the inspection. This white paper summarizes those results and identifies some methods for extending them.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA464707
Entities
People
- Alan P. Berens
- Jeremy Knopp
- Peter W. Hovey
Organizations
- University of Dayton