In an era of declining budgets, techniques that promote faster, cheaper and better performance without compromising reliability or safety are the most sought after by the aircraft industry. The large costs associated with maintenance of gas turbines is a primary motivator for evaluating methods to detect problems before and during service with the intention of extending the overall life of these systems. Efficient cooling is also a mandatory requirement and the complex cooling designs of hot section components have become an even more critical function of the proper operation of the engine. Traditional NDT techniques are labor intensive, sometimes lack quantification, may not be able to represent problems in 3D and in many cases cannot properly test these new and/or complicated geometries. In this Phase I effort, we propose using an infrared system in conjunction with controlled stimulation sources along with integrated hardware and software to more accurately and cost effectively determine the quality of cooling circuits in these advanced cooled components. Hot section components can be tested for defects such as blocked cooling holes and passages, incompletely drilled holes, delamination of bonded components and thermal barrier coating bond integrity in a more effective manner using level 1 operators at tremendous cost savings. By comparing each component to a standard that has been previously determined to be acceptable/good, discrepancies can be identified and all test results compared and archived. With constructive improvements during Phase II, this system will provide an automated, cost effective inspection of modern and future gas turbine hot section components.
