Eddy Current Testing and Evaluation of Far-Side Corrosion Around Rivet in Jet-Engine Intake of Aging Supersonic Aircraft

This study proposes an automated inspection system to inspect far-side corrosion around rivets in the F-5 supersonic aircraft. The system includes a linear integrated Hall sensor array, a C-type exciter, and an automated scanning system. The inspection system was tested on a modified elliptical intake having artificial defects with 10-mm diameter and 0.12–1.11-mm depth. An algorithm was produced to detect the defects. The probability of detection (POD) curve was obtained with hits/misses data using a log–logistics model. Defect with depths of 0.67 and 0.98 mm were detected with 90 % POD and lower 95 % confidence bound.