Assessment of nondestructive inspection methods improves hidden corrosion detection rates in aircraft lap joints.
The U.S. Air Force is investigating the use of nondestructive inspection (NDI) equipment to detect hidden corrosion in lap joint structure on C/KC-135 aircraft. In support of this effort, ARINC tested ND] procedures for possible implementation on the depot repair line at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center (OC-ALC). The NDI equipment used to test the inspection procedures is commercially available and off-the-shelf: two eddy current inspection systems (one impedance plane display and one C-scan system) and an enhanced visual inspection system. We developed three eddy current procedures and one enhanced visual inspection procedure for OC-ALC inspectors to use with the prototype systems to detect and quantify hidden corrosion in sections of B-707 and C/KC-135 aircraft structure and several manulactured lap joint samples. For comparison purposes, the inspectors also used the OC-ALC standard visual inspection procedure. ARINC analyzed the inspection results and assessed inspection performance for all five procedures by determining hit and false call percentages. In addition, we assessed inspection reliability for each eddy current procedure by determining probability of detection and false call percentage. The results of procedure testing indicate that an inspection procedure that takes advantage of eddy current and enhanced visual technologies may be a significant improvement over the standard OC-ALC visual inspection technique, increasing hidden corrosion detection rates and reducing false calls.
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Howard et al. (1995) studied this question.
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