Work has been focused on practical aspects of infrared thermographic inspection of composite aircraft structural components as performed in maintenance facilities and repair stations, which relate to test sensitivity, identification of true indications and evaluation of damages. IR thermographic inspection of a specific reference sample has been carried out and then correlated with the results after alternative NDT methods. When attending to the practice of the IR inspections and the factors affecting inspection reliability and inspection/repair related costs in an aircraft maintenance or repair workshop rather than in a research environment, these can actually be simple findings, but of the highest importance and usefulness. For the specific object of detecting water ingress in honeycomb panels: 1. The systematic use of color thermograms instead of grey scale ones will enhance inspectors confidence for the identification of water ingress. In practice, reliability related to avoiding false calls becomes much more important than a not really needed accuracy in determining the actual size of the suitable affected areas. 2. The specification of a suitable standard reference sample and the availability of the key technical information about the part under test will also warranty the inspection reliability requirements. Specified reference samples must fit the significant part features (materials, thickness, configuration, etc.) and also include the suitable discontinuities (different contents of water, in this case). On the other hand, the inspector must know about the actual configuration of the part tested, which should include all the repairs performed, etc. (related to the traceability of the part). At the same time, ongoing further developments, evaluation and implementation of alternative IR inspection techniques for in service maintenance will both broad the method application scope and improve suitable inspection reliability.
Considerations of thermographic inspection reliability of aircraft components
Betrachtungen über die Zuverlässigkeit der Thermographie für den Einsatz an Luftfahrtkomponenten
2002
6 Seiten, 7 Bilder, 2 Quellen
Conference paper
Storage medium
English
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