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Howell, P. A.

Publications and source records attributed to Howell, P. A..

7 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2005

Infrared On-Orbit Inspection of Shuttle Orbiter Reinforced Carbon-Carbon Using Solar Heating

Thermographic nondestructive inspection techniques have been shown to provide quantitative, large area damage detection capabilities for the ground inspection of the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) used for the wing leading edge of the Shuttle orbiter. The method is non-contacting and able to inspect large areas in a relatively short inspection time. Thermal nondestructive evaluation (NDE) inspections have been shown to be applicable for several applications to the Shuttle in preparation for return to flight, including for inspection of RCC panels during impact testing, and for between-flight orbiter inspections. The focus of this work is to expand the capabilities of the thermal NDE methodology to enable inspection by an astronaut during orbital conditions. The significant limitations of available resources, such as weight and power, and the impact of these limitations on the inspection technique are discussed, as well as the resultant impact on data analysis and processing algorithms. Of particular interest is the impact to the inspection technique resulting from the use of solar energy as a heat source, the effect on the measurements due to working in the vacuum of space, and the effect of changes in boundary conditions, such as radiation losses seen by the material, on the response of the RCC. The resultant effects on detectability limits are discussed. Keywords: Nondestructive Evaluation, Shuttle, on-orbit inspection, thermography, infrared

Howell, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Numerical solutions for heat flow in adhesive lap joints

The present formulation for the modeling of heat transfer in thin, adhesively bonded lap joints precludes difficulties associated with large aspect ratio grids required by standard FEM formulations. This quasi-static formulation also reduces the problem dimensionality (by one), thereby minimizing computational requirements. The solutions obtained are found to be in good agreement with both analytical solutions and solutions from standard FEM programs. The approach is noted to yield a more accurate representation of heat-flux changes between layers due to a disbond.

Howell, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Comparison of heating protocols for detection of disbonds in lap joints

A thermographic technique is presented which is shown to be effective for disbond detection in lap-joint samples. The study of various heating protocols shows that shorter heating times allow the greatest contrast in smaller disbonds; the optimum heating technique for this case is periodic heating. In order to compare the different heating protocols, contrast is defined as a function of the moments of the histograms for the bonded region and unbonded regions of the reduced thermal images. A comparison of the bonded-unbonded contrast for different heating times establishes the parameters which maximize disbond detection probability.

Winfree, William P.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Application of artificial neural networks to thermal detection of disbonds

A novel technique for processing thermal data is presented and applied to simulation as well as experimental data. Using a neural network of thermal data classification, good classification accuracies are obtained, and the resulting images exhibit very good contrast between bonded and disbonded locations. In order to minimize the preprocessing required before using the network of classification, the temperature values were directly employed to train a network using data from an on-site testing run of a commercial aircraft. Training was extremely fast, and the resulting classification also agreed reasonably well with an ultrasonic characterization of the panel. The results obtained using one sample show the partially disbonded vertical doubler. The vertical lines along the doubler correspond to the original extent of the doubler obtained using blueprints of the aircraft.

Prabhu, D. R.↗
NASA NTRS1991

Numerical simulations of thermal detection of disbonds in lap joints

A 2D time-dependent FEM heat-transfer algorithm that is unconditionally stable and implicit is presently used to solve for the time-dependence of a structure's temperature. By examining data-reduction techniques in the framework of simulation data, the contrast enhancement afforded by a given technique can be evaluated without regard to experimental error. The present computational simulations demonstrate that the time-derivative technique can clearly delineate the substructure of lap-joint geometries; in addition, histograms of the front surface images are able to quantitatively measure contrast-enhancements for various inspection and data-reduction techniques.

Howell, P. A.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Thermographic imaging of disbonds in laminated structures

The presence of disbonds significantly decreases the integrity of many laminated structures used in aerospace applications. Critical for the assessment of the effect of these disbonds on structural integrity is a determination of the disbond area. Thermography is able to detect local variations in temperature after external heating resulting from subsurface delaminations. One limitation of thermography is that the heat diffuses within the laminates, causing difficulty in determining the area of the disbond from the thermographic image. A technique has been developed for reducing the thermographic image to an image of subsurface delaminations for some laminated structures. The technique clearly delineates regions of disbond and is able to resolve disbonds which are unresolvable in the thermographic image. The limits of this technique for resolving the area and separation of disbonds are investigated using both experimental measurements and numerical calculations.

Winfree, William P.↗