Identification and Characterization of Defects in CMC Components(1001-628)

ABSTRACT: Triton Systems Inc, in conjunction with its OEM and small business partners, proposes the use of advanced ultrasonic inspection techniques to detect and quantify local voids, distributed porosity, delaminations, ply drops and wrinkles in CMC materials, ultimately to input the measured parameters to a materials model to enable improved disposition decisions. Triton has put together an experienced, cross-functional team to: 1. Provide coupon level simulation of real-world CMC defects; 2. Identify the finite element analysis (FEA) requirements for defect sizes and characteristics in order to ultimately incorporate NDI findings into an FEA-based component evaluation/dispositioning tool 3. Use the proposed NDI methods to demonstrate acquisition capability required to detect and characterize CMC defects; 4. Employ post-processing non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques to manipulate full-waveform image data to provide accurate characterization of detected CMC defects; 5. Notionally integrate the NDI methods and NDE techniques into a functional system; 6. Preliminarily evaluate potential higher sensitivity methods (e.g. phased arrays) for greater resolution and productivity; 7. Demonstrate the integrated system on real-world problems (in Phase II); and 8. Correlate the resulting NDE findings with CMC materials models to provide a reasonable standard for the range of acceptable defects in typical CMC components (in Phase II). BENEFIT: The benefits of this approach are: 1. Optimized NDE methods increase the probability of detection (POD) of defects of a certain size in a given component, regardless of location; 2. Post-inspection data manipulation provides full characterization of the defect to enable a design engineer to assess its impact on component strength and life; 3. Automation of the inspection process itself ensures higher reliability than do current manual and hand-held techniques; and 4. Ultimate development of a robust POD model, in conjunction with integration with an FEA-based evaluation tool, will enable design engineers to more accurately calculate the reliability of the component over a range of potential defects. The proposed inspection methods can be applied to a wide range of advanced military and commercial advanced gas turbine engine designs that will more widely incorporate CMC components.