Detection and Assessment of Damage to Composite Structure

摘要

A method for monitoring structural integrity of a repaired aircraft component made of composite material. The method comprises: (a) placing a multiplicity of plies of repair composite material over a repair site on the component with a sensor disposed between two plies; (b) curing the plies of repair composite material so that the repair composite material, with the sensor embedded therein, is bonded to the repair site; (c) acquiring first sensor data from the sensor before a flight of the aircraft; (d) acquiring second sensor data from the sensor during or after the flight; (e) comparing the first sensor data to the second sensor data; (f) identifying differences between the first and second sensor data indicative of structural change; and (g) determining whether the identified differences indicate structural change in excess of a specified threshold. Steps (c) through (g) are performed by a computer system.

主权项

1. A method for monitoring structural integrity of a laminated structure made of composite material, said method comprising:
(a) placing a sensor between plies of composite material which are not fully cured, the sensor being capable of outputting data representing a current structural characteristic of surrounding composite material after the composite material has been cured; (b) curing the plies of composite material while the sensor is in place to produce composite material having an embedded sensor; (c) after the curing step, acquiring and recording baseline data from the embedded sensor which represents a structural characteristic of the surrounding composite material; (d) after the baseline data has been acquired and recorded, subjecting the laminated structure to loads having unknown magnitudes and directions; (e) acquiring and recording post-loading data from the embedded sensor at a time subsequent to or during step (d), said post-loading data representing a structural characteristic of the surrounding composite material; (f) processing the baseline data and post-loading data in a manner that identifies differences between the respective baseline and post-loading data indicative of structural change in the surrounding composite material; and (g) determining whether the identified differences indicate structural change to the surrounding composite material in excess of a specified threshold, wherein steps (e) through (g) are performed by a computer system.