Studying efficiency of NDE techniques applied to composite materials in aerospace applications

Abstract

This work presents the modern approach to the detection of various types of defects in composite structures used in aerospace. In such structures, including glass reinforced plastics and carbon reinforced plastics, different failure modes could occur at a manufacturing stage and during service life. Defects are connected with inadequate technology, poor workmanship, cycling fatigue loads, impact damage and environmental conditions. The main types of defects are delaminations, disbonds, foreign object inclusions and porosity. To detect such defects, several non destructive evaluation techniques can be applied, merely to mention ultrasonic, low frequency acoustics, infrared thermography and shearography. The use of multimode non destructive evaluation techniques enables characterization of defects which cannot be detected by using single non destructive evaluation methods. This paper demonstrates the necessity of using non destructive evaluation methods for the implementation of quality control and maintenance procedures while servicing aerospace composite elements.