Assisted Data Analysis for Portable Nondestructive Inspection

Manual ultrasonic inspection (UT) or eddy current inspection (ET) of complex aircraft structures often requires inspector interpretation of complex signals on a screen while at the same time performing manual manipulation of the inspection probe. This proposal provides a path to automated, real time assistance to inspectors while they perform these complex tasks. For this effort TRI Austin has teamed with Computational Tools to develop and demonstrate real time automated assistance for the inspector both with the manual performance and interpretation of results. In the Phase I effort, we demonstrated the concept on angle beam UT for fatigue cracks in single layer metallic structures. In the Phase II, we will expand the scope to more complex structures typical of aircraft manufacture. We will also expand our real-time software, an Nondestructive Inspection (NDI) Assistant, and specific technique instructions to enable use of this technology without requiring any encoder.