The ultrasonic NDE of aerospace composites using acoustography

As part of its Composite Wing Development Programme, Airbus UK used acousto graphy, a new ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) method being devel oped by Santec Systems Inc, to evaluate a series of epoxy/carbon fibre deve lopment panels as an alternative to the conventional point-by-point ultraso nic C-scan. This study provides details on acoustography which uses a novel wide area a cousto-optic (AO) sensor that can be used to non-destructively evaluate mat erials and components in near-real time. A description of the technology an d how it compares to conventional ultrasonic methods is provided. The resul ts of three experiments are also provided. The first experiment involves pe rforming ultrasonic and acoustography tests on graphite/epoxy composite pan els that have embedded inclusions of known sizes. The objective of this exp eriment is to determine if the capabilities (ie resolution) of acoustograph y are comparable to those of a conventional ultrasonic method. The second e xperiment involves applying both ultrasonic and acoustography methods to ev aluate a 10 mm thick graphite/epoxy composite panel that had been manufactu red in an attempt to simulate defects thought likely to occur during the ma nufacturing process. The third experiment details the inspection of a compo site part representative of a typical aerospace application. Effort has bee n conducted towards demonstrating the effectiveness of the acoustography te chnology and establishing a baseline for projected inspection times.