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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NDTonAIR (NDTonAIR: Training Network in Non-Destructive Testing and Structural Health Monitoring ofAircraft structures)

Teaser

Summary

The NDTonAIR consortium is formed by Universities, Research Centres, and Companies that work together on innovative Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) technologies.

NDT and SHM are a multi- and inter-disciplinary applied fields of engineering sciences that concern the inspection, characterisation and quantification of the â€œqualityâ€ of materials and industrial goods and of the health of engineering structures. NDT and SHM include many techniques that allow the Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE) of a material, component or structure, without causing damage. Application of NDE techniques is necessary to explain or prevent failures that cause or could cause economic losses and, above all, hazards for people.

The impressive development of the industry during the past decades stimulated the development of a variety of NDE techniques mainly devoted to the detection of flaws and/or changes in structures. Further, 21st century industries continuously adopt new materials and designs methods to face ever more challenging. Research in NDE is thus a key ingredient for the safe and sustainable future of many sectors of EU industry.

NDTonAIR aims to train a new generation of scientists having a wide background in NDE, able to develop their activities both in academy and industry and playing an active role in promoting the importance of NDE. The research and training activities focus on NDE for aerospace in general and aircraft in particular, a challenging field for research and with great potential impact for EU. The main objective of NDTonAIR is to contribute to the EU competitiveness and innovation in aircraft production by developing innovative techniques and sensors to face key problems in NDT and SHM of aircraft and by improving existing NDE techniques. This goal is pursued by offering a coordinated and innovative Training & Research Programme for Early Stage Researchers (ESRs).

The training consists in lessons, seminars and workshops, together with individual research training developed at the recruiting institutions and at other NDTonAIR members.

Training and research programmes combine to create a stimulating environment and a unique opportunity for the ESRsâ€™ career development perspectives. In addition, the networking aspect of the NDTonAIR project is a key feature, since such strong interaction enhances the process, in many cases by combining expertise in new ways to improve standard techniques or solving critical key issues.

Work performed

The 1st year focused on the recruitment of the ESRs and their enrolment in PhD schools. The selection procedure was completed by the end of the 1st year and 14 of the 15 ESRs were recruited, the final one starting later in Nov. 17. The Training programme started also in Sept.17 and by Jan.18 all the ESRs were enrolled in PhD schools. Meanwhile, the ESRs started their research activities initially by studying the state-of-art of NDE techniques related to their Individual Research Projects (IRPs) and by acquiring theoretical and experimental skills through research and PhD training.
The 2nd year focused on research and NDTonAIR training, and in starting dissemination activities. Four training events were organized between Sept. 17 and Sept. 18. These provided the ESRs with background and specific skills on NDT/SHM methods. These events were also attended by other young researchers from outside the consortium since NDTonAIR established collaborations with other EU projects and research institutions in the EU and abroad, with the aim of establishing a training and research network at EU level in the field of NDE.
Concerning research, the ESRs developed their IRPs and achieved the first results in terms of new sensors, numerical tools, and measurement procedures developed as well as in comparison and integration of various NDT/SHM techniques. These results, although preliminary, were also achieved by promoting ever-increasing collaboration between NDTonAIR members. In addition, dissemination activity started in the 2nd year, with ESRs participated at various international conferences to present their initial results. The NDTonAIR project was presented at relevant conferences in the field of NDT/SHM and aircraft maintenance, to foster further interactions within the academic and industrial communities.
Finally, on Sept.18 the NDTonAIR project participated to the European Researchersâ€™ Night event â€œGreat North Nights: Planet 2.0â€ organized in Newcastle at the Great North Museum Hancock.

Final results

Up to now, all ESRs are still in the first half of their contracts, however, results achieved so far are encouraging and show potential for innovation. New SHM protocols are under development to assess relevant issues in aircraft maintenance. Acoustic emission procedures combined with the use of percolation sensors were developed to face the problem of ice and water detection in fuel tanks as well in composites parts where fatigue-induced defects could allow adverse water ingress under operation. Early detection of such unwanted events would lead to an increase of safety and to a reduction of repair costs and avoidable downtimes. Prototypes of new sensors for the generation of dispersion-free guided waves were also realized based on innovative piezoelectric and EMAT/magnetostrictive transducers. The optimization of such devices would enhance the performance of guided waves NDE techniques that are the key ones to rapidly inspect large areas of aircraft structures. Methods for the evaluation of the bonding quality for composites and for the detection of closed cracks are under investigation. Also in this case, early detection or evaluation is of utmost importance for maintenance and repair optimization. In addition, semi-analytic and numerical models for the simulation of the electromagnetic and thermal behaviour of carbon-fibre based composites were realized and tested with commercial software. Early results showed that the gain in computational times can improve simulation-assisted NDT, which is in many cases the only way to quantitative evaluate defects. The last goal is the optimization of established NDT techniques: innovative imaging procedures (thermal virtual wave), signal and image processing strategies, feature extraction protocols and machine learning approaches were proposed, tested and compared so far, also relying of new experimental set-up (e.g. contact-less full-field imaging, capacitive imaging, pulse-compression induction thermography and ultrasonic phased-array).
Within the end of the project, it is expected that new sensors and methods will be applied in real structures, to increase their technology readiness level (TRL). At the same time, for processing methods and numerical tools starting from a higher TRL level, it is expected their use in commercial devices and software packages.
The potential impact of the project results is relevant: safety in the aerospace sector is of utmost importance not only in air transportation but also in the total supply chain. Hence, NDT plays a crucial role in the achievement of the aerospace industry design targets. The EU aviation industry competes for the sector leadership and innovation in NDT and SHM is a key ingredient for have success in this competition.
Moreover, NDTonAIR research results could find application in many other industrial and civil fields and, in the long-term, NDTonAIR aims to help in achieving other important H2020 goals.