Infrastructure for the non-destructive inspection of advanced aerospace composites

申请人正在寻求资金，以在卡尔顿大学建立超声无损评价（NDE）能力，以量化先进航空航天和非航空航天复合材料的损坏和缺陷。 卡尔顿大学目前甚至缺乏航空航天结构的基本无损检测能力。 所提出的设备使用超声波传感器阵列，以产生大面积的，真实的时间的图像内感兴趣的区域的组件在检查期间。 所提出的单元还可以提供有关结构内受损区域深度的定量信息。 该设备最初将用于验证机载飞机结构健康监测系统的开发，以评估制造缺陷对复合材料部件质量的影响，并支持先进的小型无人驾驶飞行器和飞机部件的设计和制造。 从长远来看，申请人将探索其他应用，包括生物医学和其他非航空航天领域的用途。 本科生和研究生以及大学技术人员将接受拟议供应商提供的设备操作培训，申请人将根据其丰富的过去经验提供解释NDE检查结果的高级培训。 培训内容包括超声波无损检测的基本原理、此类系统的局限性以及如何解释检测结果。 使用先进的无损检测技术对于确保航空航天系统的安全可靠运行至关重要。 在卡尔顿大学接受培训的航空航天工程师将通过使用拟议的设备在这一领域获得实践经验。

The applicant is seeking funding to establish an ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation (NDE) capability at Carleton University to quantify damage and defects in advanced aerospace and non-aerospace composite materials. Carleton University currently lacks even rudimentary NDE capabilities for aerospace structures. The proposed equipment uses a ultrasonic sensor array to produce wide area, real time images of the regions of interest inside the components during the inspections. The proposed unit can also provide quantitative information about the depth of damaged regions within the structures. This equipment will initially be used to validate the development of on-board aircraft structural health monitoring systems for impact damage, to assess the effect of manufacturing defects on composite part quality and support the design and manufacturing of advanced small uninhabited aerial vehicles and aircraft components. Over the longer term other applications will be explored by the applicant including uses in the biomedical and other non-aerospace fields. Undergraduate and graduate students and university technicians will receive training in the operation of this equipment from the proposed supplier and the applicant will provide advanced training in the interpretation of NDE inspection results based on his extensive past experience. This training will include the basic principles of ultrasonic NDE, the limitations of this type of system and how to interpret inspection results. The use of advanced NDE is critical in ensuring the safe and reliable operation of aerospace systems. Aerospace engineers trained at Carleton University will have hands-on experience in this area through the use of the proposed equipment.