Nondestructive Damage Detection and Life Cycle Predictions for Advanced Composite Components

Advanced materials including metal matrix, ceramic metal matrix and other composites/metals are critical to numerous applications associated with the development of next-generation aircraft architectures whose goal is to produce aerospace platforms that are more cost efficient, safe and reliable. The wide variety of advanced materials used in aerospace construction creates significant challenges for existing material characterization technologies. Photon Induced Positron Annihilation and related technologies are currently being used to assess fatigue, thermal degradation, creep, and embrittlement in aircraft components composed of advanced composite and metal alloy materials from initial manufacture through failure, thereby providing a new reliability assessment tool for pre- and post-mission component evaluations and likelihood-of-failure assessments.