Long Range Ultrasonic inspection of aircraft wiring

Abstract

Inspecting complex aircraft wiring by means of ultrasonic non-destructive testing has been addressed. This paper discusses the progress on the development of software and hardware that enable a novel technique of Long Range Ultrasonic Testing - a subset of ultrasonic non-destructive testing to be implemented for the inspection of complex aircraft wires insulation. A representative aircraft wire was modelled to identify appropriate wave modes that can be utilized for the inspection. The modelling work was validated via laser interferometry. The sensor array was driven with the Teletest® pulser-receiver unit used in laboratory conditions to produce data for signal processing. Signal processing algorithms that combine baseline subtraction and anti-correlation algorithms were deployed to detect features as well as defects on cable insulation. Further work on validating the hardware, software and system integration is planned.