EVALUATION OF THE LAMB WAVES APPROACH TO DETECT SIMULATED DAMAGE IN AN ORTHOGONAL PLANE OF THE SENSOR NETWORK SURFACE FOR CORROSION DETECTION APPLICATION

Non-destructive testing methods for rapid and reliable corrosion detection in complex metallic assemblies are an ongoing challenge due to practicalities of inspection and geometric complexity. Corrosion damage, unlike the fatigue damages are almost impossible to determinate where or when it will affect the structures, the current engineering methodology can only determinate the susceptible areas for corrosion. In this scenario, it is very difficult to chose the structures to monitor. Placing sensors on all susceptible areas is not practical. This work demonstrates the evaluation of the Lamb Waves approach in order to detect and locate simulated damages in aluminum alloys placed orthogonally from the sensor network surface. The tests were performed using a typical aeronautical specimen configuration and Direct Image Path from Acellent Technologies. The experimental results indicate the Lamb Waves technique is highly accurate and it has become promising application to detect corrosion damage. This study is part of a set study of several SHM Technologies, like CVM (Comparative Vacuum Monitoring), EMI (Electro-Mechanical Impedance), AE (Acoustic Emission), LW (Lamb Waves). Those studies are under EMBRAER's R&D program.