A leading UK tier 1 aerospace supplier required digital engineering expertise within their project which is aiming to develop and accelerate composite material and process technologies to help reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions within the industry. The project focuses on greater adoption of composite technologies, the industrialisation of new technologies and accelerating aerospace production rates to meet future high-volume requirements.
Composite NDT
The Centre for Modelling and Simulation (CFMS) used its expertise in simulation, optimisation and sensitivity analysis to develop an acoustic guided wave Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) system for composite components.
Within, this non-destructive testing (NDT) project, CFMS developed a numerical simulation of the inspection, accounting for variations in the manufactured composite plates and the dispersive properties of the wave mode. Additionally, we refined the imaging algorithm to maximise and optimise inspection performance.
As a part of the NDT project, CFMS conducted a parametric study to optimise the sensor configuration and imaging settings for a robust inspection, as well as assessing the system’s sensitivity to different defect morphologies and locations.
The simulation based development of the inspection enabled a broader scope of test scenarios to be explored, reducing the necessity for costly and time-consuming manufacturing of composite plates. As a result, a wider variety of configurations were explored, leading to a more comprehensive investigation of the design space and a higher quality inspection, giving greater confidence.
Applicability of Artificial Intelligence for Industrial Inspection
A large number of visual inspections tasks are routinely carried out in the aerospace industry, though these activities are largely manual, involve recurring costs and…