This paper is concerned with the quantitative nondestructive evaluation of corrosion around and cracks emanating from rivet holes in typical aircraft structural components. Current techniques for detecting defects around rivet holes are time consuming and qualitative. A recently developed ultrasonic technique using plate guided Lamb waves as probes has been found to be successful in laboratory specimens and appear to have the potential to improve the speed and robustness of the inspection. The general features and future prospects of the method is described in the paper.

Date Published: 31 March 1998
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 3397, Nondestructive Evaluation of Aging Aircraft, Airports, and Aerospace Hardware II, (31 March 1998); doi: 10.1117/12.305037

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 3397:
Nondestructive Evaluation of Aging Aircraft, Airports, and Aerospace Hardware II
Glenn A. Geithman; Gary E. Georgeson, Editor(s)