Industry Partners: United Airlines, American Airlines, Northwest AIrlines, Delta Airlines, Boeing, EAA, Bell Helicopter, Iowa Army National Guard, Scaled Composites, NASA, AANC
Objectives:
-
To develop fieldable ultrasonic NDI methodologies to address the composite inspection needs of the airlines
Approach:
- Verify ply drop-offs
in composite skins of rudders and elevators as required in current inspection
procedures
- Detect debond,
delamination and impact damage in thin composite facesheets over honeycomb
core
- NDI of composites
through multi-layers of paint
- Imaging of metal
inserts such as doublers and detection of debonds
- Measurement of
paint thickness on graphite epoxy structures
- Inspection of
repairs in composite structures (not to be confused with repair of metal
structures with composite)
Using commercially available equipment, techniques will be developed on extremes where inspection improvements are needed for thin coposite skins (up to about 8 plies thick), and highly attenuating repairs in thicker composites.
Products:
- Betasite tests
at airlines, OEMs, and IANG
-
Patents and commercial products
Links:
Copyright © 2002
For more information about CASR please contact:
Lisa Brasche
Iowa State University
casr@cnde.iastate.edu