| Continued flying of aging military and commercial aircraft has increased the need to monitor known damage sites and critical areas. Some of these damage sites are difficult to inspect and in some cases, only accessible during second or third line maintenance.; Due to their planar, flexible characteristics and their potential for permanent installation, flexible coil technology (FCT) has the potential for unobtrusive in situ damage monitoring of components that are difficult to access. Many features of pulsed eddy current (PEC) allow for quantitative analysis of several defect parameters. In addition, eddy current techniques, as compared to other non-destructive evaluation (NDE) techniques, are better suited for damage monitoring. PEC coupled with FCT has demonstrated some ability to quantify crack parameters in thin sheet aluminum. |
