Ultrasound Camera for Rapid, Simple NDE of Rotor Blade Assemblies

The available tools to detect skin to core disbonds are both difficult to use and require extensive training. Complex waveforms must often be interpreted. We are proposing a small, portable, low cost ultrasound camera for in-service inspection of honeycomb rotor blades for skin to core disbonds. The basis of our technique is a two dimensional imaging array which generates real time C-scan images of defects in materials. The key advantage of this system is the simplicity of the technique. Therefore, a non-specialized inspector can easily be trained to find small defects in these structures.