| Conference | Nondestructive Characterization and Monitoring of Advanced Materials, Aerospace, Civil Infrastructure, and Transportation XII, March 4-8, 2018, Denver, United States |
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| Abstract | In-situ condition-based maintenance is making strides in the aerospace industry and it is seen as an alternative to scheduled, time-based maintenance. With fatigue cracks originating from fastener holes as the main reason for structural failures, embedded eddy current coils are a viable non-invasive solution for their timely detection. The development and potential broad use of these coils are motivated by a few consistent arguments: (i) inspection of structures of complicated geometries and hard to access areas, that often require disassembly, (ii) alternative to regular inspection actions that could introduce inadvertent damage, (iii) for structures that have short inspection intervals, and (iv) for repaired structures where fastener holes contain bushings and prevent further bolt-hole inspections. Since the spiral coils are aiming at detecting radial cracks emanating from the fastener holes, their design parameters should allow for high inductance, low ohmic losses and power requirements, as well as optimal size and high sensitivity to discontinuities. In this study, flexible, surface conformable, spiral eddy current coils are empirically investigated on mock-up specimens, while numerical analysis is performed for their optimization and design improvement. |
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