Automated in-service damage identification

Service damage for mechanical components includes surface delamination, impact damage, crack, wear and corrosion. Automated service damage identification for better analysis of a component remaining life in order to reduce the service cost is increasingly necessary for industrial product-service systems, e.g. power-by-hour contracts. This paper presents a novel approach to apply active thermography and image processing techniques for damage identification and measurement. The study presents experimental results to assess the shape, size and depth of sub-surface damage features on test and real life components. Industrial requirements for the non-destructive inspection for a class of aerospace components are also presented.