Aircraft Wiring Nondestructive Testing

European Union 7th Framework Program project

2013-2014

CERETH, ATARD, Pi LTD, Marshall, Hortec, ASSIST, PolKom Badania, Brunel University London

There are kilometres of wiring in modern aircrafts (~600km in an Airbus 380), carrying a range of services from power, vital avionics and communication systems through to in-flight entertainment. They are extremely difficult to inspect during routine maintenance because they are bundled into complex harnesses and pass behind structural components/bulkheads. As the wiring ages, the wires and their insulation are subject to a variety of degradation. This project developed an ultrasonic guided wave system for detection of defects in the insulation of aircraft wires.

Experimental measurement of ultrasonic guided wave dispersion curves for comparison with modelling.