Development of a Thermal Nondestructive Inspection System to Detect Corrosion in Aircraft Structures.

A portable thermal nondestructive system suitable for inspecting large structures in the field and laboratory was designed, built and tested. The system has the capability of detecting near surface material and structural defects such as voids, delaminations, unbounds, inclusions and corrosion. The system consists of a handheld scanning head, operators control console and interconnecting cable. The necessary hardware and electronics to sequentially heat and scan the surface temperature of a test material are included within the head. Signal processing electronics, display oscilloscope, recorder and operators controls are enclosed in the control console. Author