Composite repair patch evaluation using pulse-echo laser ultrasonic correlation mapping method

Composite patch bonding repair is widely applied to metal and composite aircraft repair owing to its light weight and high resistance to fatigue and corrosion. However, composite patch repairing is done by vacuum bag processing in general, and the process itself is susceptible to manufacturing defects. In addition, the composite repair patches require more frequent inspections owing to the difficulty of the damage prediction. In this paper, we propose pulse-echo laser ultrasonic correlation mapping for a rapid quality evaluation method of composite repair patching. This method uses a pulse-echo ultrasonic propagation imaging system as a tool for in-situ and full-field inspection, and an ultrasonic correlation mapping (UCM) method was developed for fast and straightforward defect visualization. Two composite patch repair specimens were tested, and then UCM results were compared with other results using existing visualization methods. We also tested a composite laminate plate to verify the applicability of UCM to general composite parts. The UCM results showed similar or better performance than current visualization methods in all cases. Test results showed that the proposed system is suitable for both in-process quality evaluation and in-service field inspection.