Special honeycomb material is needed for the X-33 reusable launch vehicle engine nozzle to meet the extreme structural and environmental conditions in which it must operate. The outer sheet of the honeycomb is brazed onto the honeycomb structure, and the completed assembly forms the structural support for the nozzle ramp in this linear aerospike design. It is imperative to be able to detect defective braze interfaces on both the air side and hotwall facesheet to core bonds. The application is made particularly difficult to examine due to the pocket method of installation, which provides for only single-side access. Several nondestructive evaluation (NDE) methods were evaluated to define an acceptable inspection methodology, including acoustic microscopy, pulsed infrared thermography, and laser shearography. This paper will describe the evaluation methods and results obtained from programmed defect and preproduction development samples.
Comparison of acoustic microscopy, pulsed infrared thermography (PIRT), and laser shearography for the detection of debonds in honeycomb structures
1998
3 Seiten
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
Directed acoustic shearography
SPIE | 2010
|British Library Conference Proceedings | 2007
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