Simulated Turbine Airfoil Calibration Standards

To address the Air Force need for calibration standards for measuring small flaws in turbine airfoils during thermosonic nondestructive evaluation, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new Simulated Turbine Airfoil Calibration (STAC) standards process. This proposed development is based on the laser shock peening technique and a simulated control analysis process. The innovation in the LSP process control for small flaw induction will enable STAC to reliably and repeatably produce high quality reference standards that could be used on any component where very small surface or subsurface flaws exist. In Phase I POC will demonstrate the feasibility of producing calibration standards that will be validated by nondestructive evaluation and by simulation. In Phase II POC plans to further optimize the process and integrate it into a fully functioning platform that will include thermosonic NDE for defects validation.