An analysis of etchant effects on penetrant performance
Etching welds prior to penetrant inspection for greater crack detection
DETECTION↗
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Early Detection of Cracks Resulting from Fatigue Stressing
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STEELS - FATIGUE↗
Electromagnetic Detection of Fatigue Cracks under Protruding Head Ferromagnetic Fasteners
The detection of fatigue cracks under installed fasteners has been a major goal of the aging aircraft NDE community. The Sliding Probe, Magneto-Optic Imager, Rotating Self-Nulling Probe, Low Frequency Eddy Current Array, and Eddyscan systems are among the instruments developed for this inspection. It has been verified that the detection of fatigue cracks under flush head aluminum and titanium fasteners can be accomplished with a high resolution by the above techniques. The detection of fatigue cracks under ferromagnetic and protruding head fasteners, however, has been found to be much more difficult. For the present work, the inspection for fatigue cracks under SAE 4340 Steel Hi-Lok fasteners is explored. Modifications to the Rotating Self-Nulling Eddy Current Probe System are presented which enable the detection of fatigue cracks hidden under the protruding head of the ferromagnetic fastener. Inspection results for samples with varying length EDM notches are shown, as well as a comparison between the signature from an EDM notch and an actual fatigue crack. Finite Element Modeling is used to investigate the effect of the ferromagnetic fastener on the induced eddy current distribution in order to help explain the detection characteristics of the system. This paper will also introduce a modification to the Rotating Probe System designed specifically for the detection of deeply buried flaws in multilayer conductors. The design change incorporates a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensor as the pickup device to improve the low frequency performance of the probe. The flaw detection capabilities of the GMR based Self- Nulling Probe are presented along with the status of the GMR based Rotating Probe System for detection of deeply buried flaws under installed fasteners.
Wincheski, Buzz↗
Propulsion Health Monitoring for Enhanced Safety
This report presents the results of the NASA contract Propulsion System Health Management for Enhanced Safety performed by General Electric Aircraft Engines (GE AE), General Electric Global Research (GE GR), and Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory (PSU ARL) under the NASA Aviation Safety Program. This activity supports the overall goal of enhanced civil aviation safety through a reduction in the occurrence of safety-significant propulsion system malfunctions. Specific objectives are to develop and demonstrate vibration diagnostics techniques for the on-line detection of turbine rotor disk cracks, and model-based fault tolerant control techniques for the prevention and mitigation of in-flight engine shutdown, surge/stall, and flameout events. The disk crack detection work was performed by GE GR which focused on a radial-mode vibration monitoring technique, and PSU ARL which focused on a torsional-mode vibration monitoring technique. GE AE performed the Model-Based Fault Tolerant Control work which focused on the development of analytical techniques for detecting, isolating, and accommodating gas-path faults.
Butz, Mark G.↗
Automatic identification and quantification of dense microcracks in high-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composites through deep learning-based computer vision
Highlights: • A method is presented to detect, locate, quantify, and visualize dense microcracks in HPFRCC. • Quantification of dense microcracks is realized using deep learning method for the first time. • The presented method uses deep learning models that are trained using a realistic dataset size. • The presented method has a high computation efficiency for identifying and quantifying cracks. • The presented method provides crack width with errors up to 50 μm and a R{sup 2} value of 0.984. High-performance fiber-reinforced cementitious composites (HPFRCCs) feature high mechanical strengths, crack resistance, and durability. Under excessive loading, HPFRCCs demonstrate dense microcracks that are difficult to identify using existing methods. This study presents a computer vision method for identification, quantification, and visualization of microcracks in HPFRCCs based on deep learning. The presented method integrates multiple deep learning models and computer vision techniques in a hierarchical architecture. The crack pattern (e.g., number, width, and spacing of cracks) are automatically determined from pictures without human intervention. This study shows that the presented method achieves an accuracy of 0.992 for crack detection and an accuracy finer than 50 μm (R{sup 2} > 0.984) for quantification of crack width when deep learning models are trained using only 200 pictures of HPFRCCs and 200 pictures of conventional concrete with incorporation of data augmentation. The presented method is expected to be also applicable to other materials featuring complex cracks.
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
Detection of hairline cracks in textured silicon solar cells
Using a focused laser scanner, the optical technique described in the present paper can be used to detect hairline cracks of the type occurring in solar cells subjected to surface texturing. The technique is capable of detecting cracks of the order of a few microns, which, otherwise, can be observed only under high magnification using an optical microscope. The technique consists of scanning a solar cell with a finely focused laser beam and recording the photoresponse (short circuit current or open circuit voltage) as a function of beam position. The presence of a crack is manifested by a sharp dip in the photoresponse.
Sopori, B. L.↗
Coupling Damage-Sensing Particles to the Digitial Twin Concept
The research presented herein is a first step toward integrating two emerging structural health management paradigms: digital twin and sensory materials. Digital twin is an emerging life management and certification paradigm whereby models and simulations consist of as-built vehicle state, as-experienced loads and environments, and other vehicle-specific history to enable high-fidelity modeling of individual aerospace vehicles throughout their service lives. The digital twin concept spans many disciplines, and an extensive study on the full domain is out of the scope of this study. Therefore, as it pertains to the digital twin, this research focused on one major concept: modeling specifically the as-manufactured geometry of a component and its microstructure (to the degree possible). The second aspect of this research was to develop the concept of sensory materials such that they can be employed within the digital twin framework. Sensory materials are shape-memory alloys that undergo an audible phase transformation while experiencing sufficient strain. Upon embedding sensory materials with a structural alloy, this audible transformation helps improve the reliability of crack detection especially at the early stages of crack growth. By combining these two early-stage technologies, an automated approach to evidence-based inspection and maintenance of aerospace vehicles is sought.
Hochhalter, Jacob↗
Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) Damage Tolerance Life Analysis Methodology and Test Best Practices
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) Deputy Director requested an independent assessment to develop data to understand the limitations of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) computational methods used to predict fatigue crack growth rate (da/dN) behavior of small detectable cracks in thin metal liners for composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs). The NESC assessment team was also requested to demonstrate a test-based methodology for validating damage tolerance requirements for COPVs with elastically responding metal liners where LEFM methods are not appropriate. This report contains the outcome of the NESC assessment.
Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels; Linear Ela↗
Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) Damage Tolerance Life Analysis Methodology and Test Best Practices: Appendices
The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) Deputy Director requested an independent assessment to develop data to understand the limitations of linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) computational methods used to predict fatigue crack growth rate (da/dN) behavior of small detectable cracks in thin metal liners for composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs). The NESC assessment team was also requested to demonstrate a test-based methodology for validating damage tolerance requirements for COPVs with elastically responding metal liners where LEFM methods are not appropriate. This document contains the appendices to the main report.
Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels; Linear Ela↗
Strength of Welded Aircraft Joints
This investigation is a continuation of work started in 1928 and described in NACA-TR-348 which shows that the insertion of gusset plates was the most satisfactory way of strengthening a joint. Additional tests of the present series show that joints of this type could be improved by cutting out the portion of the plate between the intersecting tubes. T and lattice joints in thin-walled tubing 1 1/2 by 0.020 inch have somewhat lower strengths than joints in tubing of greater wall thickness because of failure by local buckling. In welding the thin-walled tubing, the recently developed "carburizing flux" process was found to be the only method capable of producing joints free from cracks. The "magnetic powder" inspection was used to detect cracks in the joints and flaws in the tubing.
Brueggeman, W C↗
Detection of Fatigue Cracks at Rivets with Self-Nulling Probe
A new eddy current probe developed at NASA Langley Research Center has been used to detect small cracks at rivets in aircraft lap splices [1]. The device has earlier been used to detect isolated fatigue cracks with a minimum detectable flaw size of roughly 1/2 to 1/3 the diameter of the probe [2]. The present work shows that the detectable flaw size for cracks originating at rivets can be greatly improved upon from that of isolated flaws. The use of a rotating probe method combined with spatial filtering has been used to detect 0.18 cm EDM notches, as measured from the rivet shank, with a 1.27 cm diameter probe and to detect flaws buried under the rivet head, down to a length of 0.076 cm, using a 0.32 cm diameter probe. The Self-Nulling Electromagnetic Flaw Detector induces a high density eddy current ring in the sample under test. A ferromagnetic flux focusing lens is incorporated such that in the absence of any inhomogeneities in the material under test only a minimal magnetic field will reach the interior of the probe. A magnetometer (pickup coil) located in the center of the probe therefore registers a null voltage in the absence of material defects. When a fatigue crack or other discontinuity is present in the test article the path of the eddy currents in the material is changed. The magnetic field associated with these eddy currents then enter into the interior of the probe, producing a large output voltage across the pickup coil leads. Further
Wincheski, Buzz↗
High speed thin plate fatigue crack monitor
A device and method are provided which non-destructively detect crack length and crack geometry in thin metallic plates. A non-contacting vibration apparatus produces resonant vibrations without introducing extraneous noise. Resulting resonant vibration shifts in cracked plates are correlated to known crack length in plates with similar resonant vibration shifts. In addition, acoustic emissions of cracks at resonance frequencies are correlated to acoustic emissions from known crack geometries.
Wincheski, Buzz A.↗
pvcracks
SAND2024-00922O This software uses electroluminescence images to predict power loss due to cell cracks in photovoltaic modules. The software will incorporate trained variational autoencoder(s) to parameterize cell cracks detected in electroluminescence images of photovoltaic modules and relate cracks to electrical properties; reduced-order models of finite element simulations of electrical behavior of photovoltaic modules under thermomechanical stresses; reduced-order models of stress distributions; inside photovoltaic modules resulting from x-ray topography experiments; and image segmentation and splining methods to analyze x-ray topography measurements of cracked photovoltaic cells. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.
Hartley, James↗
Assessment of NDE reliability data
Twenty sets of relevant nondestructive test (NDT) reliability data were identified, collected, compiled, and categorized. A criterion for the selection of data for statistical analysis considerations was formulated, and a model to grade the quality and validity of the data sets was developed. Data input formats, which record the pertinent parameters of the defect/specimen and inspection procedures, were formulated for each NDE method. A comprehensive computer program was written and debugged to calculate the probability of flaw detection at several confidence limits by the binomial distribution. This program also selects the desired data sets for pooling and tests the statistical pooling criteria before calculating the composite detection reliability. An example of the calculated reliability of crack detection in bolt holes by an automatic eddy current method is presented.
Yee, B. G. W.↗
Implementing Recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board: Development of On-Orbit IR Thermography
One of NASA's Space Shuttle Return-to-Flight (RTF) efforts has been to develop thermography for the on-orbit inspection of the Reinforced Carbon Carbon (RCC) portion of the Orbiter Wing Leading Edge (WLE). This paper addresses the capability of thermography to detect cracks in RCC by using in-plane thermal gradients that naturally occur on-orbit. Crack damage, which can result from launch debris impact, is a detection challenge for other on-orbit sensors under consideration for RTF, such as the Intensified Television Camera and Laser Dynamic Range Imager. We studied various cracks in RCC, both natural and simulated, along with material characteristics, such as emissivity uniformity, in steady-state thermography. Severity of crack, such as those likely and unlikely to cause burn through were tested, both in-air and in-vacuum, and the goal of this procedure was to assure crew and vehicle safety during reentry by identification and quantification of a damage condition while on-orbit. Expected thermal conditions are presented in typical shuttle orbits, and the expected damage signatures for each scenario are presented. Finally, through statistical signal detection, our results show that even at very low in-plane thermal gradients, we are able to detect damage at or below the threshold for fatality in the most critical sections of the WLE, with a confidence exceeding 1 in 10,000 probability of false negative.
Ottens, Brian P.↗
Implementing Recommendations of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board - Development of on-Orbit RCC Thermography
One of NASA s Space Shuttle Return-to-Flight (RTF) efforts has been to develop thermography for the on-orbit inspection of the Reinforced Carbon Carbon (RCC) portion of the Orbiter Wing Leading Edge (WLE). This paper addresses the capability of thermography to detect cracks in RCC by using in-plane thermal gradients that naturally occur on-orbit. Crack damage, which can result from launch debris impact, is a detection challenge for other on-orbit sensors under consideration for RTF, such as the Intensified Television Camera and Laser Dynamic Range Imager. We studied various cracks in RCC, both natural and simulated, along with material characteristics, such as emissivity uniformity, in steady-state thermography. Severity of crack, such as those likely and unlikely to cause burn through were tested, both in-air and in-vacuum, and the goal of this procedure was to assure crew and vehicle safety during re-entry by identification and quantification of a damage condition while on-orbit. Expected thermal conditions are presented in typical shuttle orbits, and the expected damage signatures for each scenario are presented. Finally, through statistical signal detection, our results show that even at very low in-plane thermal gradients, we are able to detect damage at or below the threshold for fatality in the most critical sections of the WLE, with a confidence exceeding 1 in 10,000 probability of false negative.
Ottens, Brian↗
Sensitivity and comparison evaluation of Saturn 5 liquid penetrants
Results of a sensitivity and comparison evaluation performed on six liquid penetrants that were used on the Saturn 5 vehicle and other space hardware to detect surface discontinuities are described. The relationship between penetrant materials and crack definition capabilities, the optimum penetrant materials evaluation method, and the optimum measurement methods for crack dimensions were investigated. A unique method of precise developer thickness control was envolved, utilizing clear radiographic film and a densitometer. The method of evaluation included five aluminum alloy, 2219-T87, specimens that were heated and then quenched in cold water to produce cracks. The six penetrants were then applied, one at a time, and the crack indications were counted and recorded for each penetrant for comparison purposes. Measurements were made by determining the visual crack indications per linear inch and then sectioning the specimens for a metallographic count of the cracks present. This method provided a numerical approach for assigning a sensitivity index number to the penetrants. Of the six penetrants evaluated, two were not satisfactory (one was not sufficiently sensitive and the other was to sensitive, giving false indications). The other four were satisfactory with approximately the same sensitivity in the range of 78 to 80.5 percent of total cracks detected.
Jones, G. H.↗
Integrated Nondestructive Evaluation and Finite Element Analysis Predicts Crack Location and Shape
This study describes the finite-element analyses and the NDE modality undertaken on two flywheel rotors that were spun to burst speed. Computed tomography and dimensional measurements were used to nondestructively evaluate the rotors before and/or after they were spun to the first crack detection. Computed tomography data findings of two- and three-dimensional crack formation were used to conduct finite-element (FEA) and fracture mechanics analyses. A procedure to extend these analyses to estimate the life of these components is also outlined. NDE-FEA results for one of the rotors are presented in the figures. The stress results, which represent the radial stresses in the rim, clearly indicate that the maximum stress region is within the section defined by the computed tomography scan. Furthermore, the NDE data correlate well with the FEA results. In addition, the measurements reported show that the NDE and FEA data are in parallel.
Abdul-Azia, Ali↗