Rapid Nondestructive Inspection of Traditionally Uninspectable Adhesively-Filled Composite Joints

Composite joints with tight radii, such as “pi (π)� or “T� joints, are often manufactured with thick adhesive bondlines and “nuggets/noodles,� that are difficult or impossible to inspect using traditional nondestructive inspection (NDI) equipment. In this Phase I STTR effort, TRI Austin and CNDE propose to develop ultrasonic (UT) NDE techniques, in partcular, using phased array technology, and accompanying data analysis that will allow inspectors to start at production with initial, high capital intensive, advanced technology inspections that can find damage/flaw conditions and often find non-rejectable conditions, such as fiber orientations, small inserts, etc. The effort will examine defect sizes, sensing methodology and signal processesing relating to defects in the joint, and will culminate in labotaroy demonstrations to prove the feasibility of this approach.