Built-In Damage State Detection and Localization Capabilities for Composite Engine Structures

Fiber reinforced polymer composites are finding increased applications in the aircraft and aerospace industries due to their superior mechanical properties and light weight. However, composite materials are subject to damage during fatigue, mechanical impact, and aging in a service environment. Early detection of these failure process and hazards is desired for improving structure safety and increase fleet readiness. We propose to develop a networked high temperature ultrasonic sensor system with a “virtual inspection” simulation tool to monitoring and inspect the condition of composite material. The proposed work is built upon our extensive experience in wave mechanics simulation and health monitoring sensor network for composites. The expected applications of such a system are quite promising. BENEFIT: Inspection simulation is becoming important issue as more and more structures are getting old and many new structures need to be designed. “virtual inspection” can save cost and time spent on looking for proper methods for inspection, and experiment on coupons/parts for demonstration. Aviation safety is one area of application of such tool for simulating NDE approaches on aircraft and space structures. It is very important to develop low cost and reliable nondestructive inspection and monitoring technique to detect the onset of failures so that necessary precautions can be taken to prevent hazards. Our proposed sensor network with the design from simulation will be able to detect and localize growing defect in composite, thus achieves reliable detection, improves safety of the structure, and saves costs in maintenance. NDE and structural health monitoring is important for many military and commercial systems such as aircraft, automobiles, trains, home appliances, nuclear reactors, etc. We expect the commercial potential of the proposed system is very good.