Quantifiable Corrosion Detection in Aging Aircraft

The ability to detect and predict corrosion damage in its early stages could lessen the chances of catastrophic failure in aging, over-extended aircraft; thereby providing a safer and more reliable transportation system for both civilian and military sectors. This is especially critical now as transportation providers attempt to meet the increased expense of repairing aging aircraft with smaller budgets. These budget constraints exemplify the importance of early corrosion detection and repair and, if necessary, the determination of the optimal time to replace corroded parts. The discovery of models that limit the possibility of a tragic accident while optimizing resource utilization would allow transportation providers to efficiently focus their maintenance efforts. While our concern in this study was with aircraft, the results will also be useful to other transportation providers. This paper provides a background on eddy current (EC) non-destructive tests (NDT), the methodology used to extract the data into a useable form and the results of our comparison of empirical models to detect corrosion damage. The NDT data were derived from EC scans of the United States Air Force’s (USAF) KC-135 aircraft.