Determining Porosity of Monolithic Zones in Aircraft Parts and Assemblies Made of PCMs Using Ultrasound Pulse Echo Method

Abstract

At present, when inspecting aircraft parts and assemblies made of polymer composite materials, it is also necessary to estimate porosity over the entire area of these parts during the main search for defects. As a result of research, techniques have been developed to evaluate the porosity of the parts and assemblies of an airplane wing made of polymer composite materials using the ultrasonic pulse-echo method. A feature of these techniques is that data for further processing and producing the design values of porosity is collected simultaneously with the main testing without increasing its labor intensity. Correlation dependences have been constructed between the value of porosity and the amplitude of a bottom echo signal in carbon plastics produced by autoclave molding and by infusion. Results of estimating errors in determining porosity using the developed techniques are provided. The main causes of these errors are formulated.