Magneto-Thermography and Hybrid Methods for Composite Life Management

This proposed program will focus on life management needs for new and emerging composite material systems and built-up structures in "young" aircraft. Both wide area inspection of fuselage and wing structures and characterization of adhesive bonds in built-up structures are addressed. JENTEK will develop both (1) hybrid methods in which spatially registered, digital images, produced by two or more sensing modalities are combined, and (2) a new method called Magneto-Thermography, invented by JENTEK, which offers both wide area inspection advantages and potential for characterization of adhesive bonds in built-up composite and metal structures. In one implementation of a hybrid method for graphite fiber/epoxy composites, the MWM-Array could sense and locate fiber damage and fiber movement under loads, while thermography could sense both fiber and matrix damage, allowing discrimination between fiber breakage, fiber/matrix disbonding, matrix cracking, and disbonding in built-up structures. Magneto-Thermography will use the demonstrated capability of the MWM-Array to monitor temperatures of buried fibers and to monitor temperatures at buried interfaces to replace IR cameras with MWM-Arrays in thermographic methods. This will enable both wide area inspection of thick composites and enhanced characterization of adhesive bonds in built-up structures, for foam layers, and other aerospace and space applications.