Ultrasonic Guided Waves for Lap Splice Joint Inspection in Aging Aircraft
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Begun in 1973, the Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation (QNDE) is the premier international NDE meeting designed to provide an interface between research and early engineering through the presentation of current ideas and results focused on facilitating a rapid transfer to engineering development.
This site provides free, public access to papers presented at the annual QNDE conference between 1983 and 1999, and abstracts for papers presented at the conference since 2001.
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Abstract
The integrity and reliability of adhesive joints in structural applications has long been a critical issue. Failure of these bonds during service could be catastrophic. In particular, the aviation industry due to its progressively aging fleet calls for a reliable non-destructive testing technique to characterize the bond quality. Several NDE techniques were developed each with its own advantages and disadvantages. [1–2] Utilization of ultrasonic guided waves offer a reliable and time efficient method. [3] Following several laboratory studies this technique was tested on a service damaged aircraft at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. A Double Spring Hopping Probe (DSHP) was developed and tested on this test bed. A protocol for the inspection of lap splices and tear strap was established. The concepts of utilization of wave structure in mode selection, angle and frequency tuning for optimal use of the Lamb type guided waves are addressed. Highlights of our recent work on aging aircraft inspection are presented in this paper. The work expands on our earlier presentations. [4]