Full-volume Ultrasonic Technique for 3D Thickness Reconstruction of CFRP Aeronautical Components

Nowadays, carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) are widely utilized for the construction of light weight aircrafts. The main technologies for assembly and joining composite aircraft structures are drilling and bonding. Failures of bonded joints or bolted attachments can occur within the composite structure; therefore, each manufactured composite structure needs to be accurately inspected. In this paper, an advanced ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation technique based on full volume ultrasonic scanning is applied for the characterization and the 3D thickness reconstruction of two diverse CFRP aeronautical components to obtain a quality assessment of the process and a 3D representation of the defects.