Corrosion Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) in Confined Access Areas

The United States Air Force (USAF) has large, in-ground, box-like steel structures which are starting to corrode, and it now needs a non-destructive inspection (NDI) method of rapidly assessing their material state.Texas Research Institute Austin, Inc. (TRI Austin), in collaboration with Clarkson University, will develop methods of large area inspection using guided ultrasonic testing (UT) Lamb waves.Guided UT Lamb waves, along with visual inspections of the interior surface, will enable the rapid determination of the presence of corrosion in the steel lining on both the interior and exterior surfaces.TRI Austin will leverage its Large Area Health Monitoring Processor (LAHMP) system as the foundation for fieldable equipment and its NDIToolbox for analyzing the Lamb wave signals.The NDIToolbox provides a coherent package of algorithms that can handle many common NDI data management tasks and enable users to add capability for specific problems. Its core handles the basic tasks of importing data from different vendors and providing a consistent internal data representation that displays the data for built-in and customized algorithms for display, manipulation, and processing.Developed largely under USAF and NASA contracts, TRI Austins NDIToolbox is open-source and can export data and information in open formats.