A Portable Corrosion Detector for inspecting Aircraft Structures with Complex Geometries.

Aging aircraft commonly suffers from several types of degradation including corrosion, cracking and lack of bonding. Severe corrosive environment of naval aircrafts results in corrosion as the fundamental reason for aging aircraft. A corrosion detection system, independent from geometrical complexities, needs to be developed to detect active corrosion. AE method can be used to detect corrosion growth on-line for periodically active corrosion or off-line for active corrosion during measurement. In this proposal, we propose to develop a hand-held detector using of state-of-the-art AE method to detect active corrosion growing on naval aircraft components. During the Phase I and Phase I Option periods of this project, we will demonstrate the feasibility of developing an AE system with optimized settings to detect active corrosion growing on naval aircraft components. The system will have a grading system as a part of analysis software.