Corrosion detection using piezoelectric wafer active sensors

Abstract

In the early 2000’s the Air Force was very interested in developing smart structures. Of unique interest was a structure that could be equipped with in-situ sensors that could detect damage under normal operating conditions. The idea was that the United States Air Force could save millions of dollars every year by building aircraft with an inherent way of detecting its own life-cycle damage like stress cracks or corrosion. This would significantly reduce the burden of sending thousands of aircraft to a depot for costly and time-consuming non-destructive evaluations and inspections. This paper focuses on developing an in-situ method for detecting material loss in metal structures using Piezo-electric Wafer Active Sensors (PWAS) and presents a path forward to make this technology operationally viable.