Skip to main content
Contribution to Book
Wireless NDI for Aircraft Inspection
Proceedings of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing Research Symposium (2013)
  • Hossein Taheri, Georgia Southern University
  • Fereidoon Delfanian, South Dakota State University
  • Jikai Du, South Dakota State University
Abstract
Nondestructive inspections (NDI) play an important role in the manufacturing and maintenance of aircrafts. Conventionally, an NDI probe is placed on the testing structures and is connected to an NDI main unit through cable. However, this use of cable may cause problems such as foreign object damage, high cost and limitations of maneuverability. In our research, the prototype of wireless communication between the probe and main unit was developed for eddy current techniques. Such wireless probe aims at being inserted into different parts of aircrafts for both internal and external inspection without sacrificing NDI capabilities when compared to a cable-wired probe. The new wireless probe interface can generate various types of activation signals that are synchronized wirelessly with the main unit, and in the meantime, it can also process the received signal at the probe and send it back wirelessly to the main unit. Experiments on the detection, sizing and depth estimation of various types of defects were carried out and compared to wired NDI systems. Preliminary experimental results showed that the eddy current signals can be wirelessly communicated with main unit, and further research work needs to be done to improve the signal distortion.
Keywords
  • Wireless NDI,
  • Aircraft inspection
Disciplines
Publication Date
March, 2013
Publisher
American Society for Nondestructive Testing
Citation Information
Hossein Taheri, Fereidoon Delfanian and Jikai Du. "Wireless NDI for Aircraft Inspection" Memphis, TNProceedings of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing Research Symposium (2013) p. 120 - 126
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/hossein-taheri/16/