Sonic Infrared (IR) Imaging and Fluorescent Penetrant Inspection Probability of Detection (POD) Comparison

Sandia National Laboratories Airworthiness Assurance Nondestructive Inspection Validation Center (AANC) implemented two crack probability of detection (POD) experiments to compare in a quantitative manner the ability of Sonic Infrared (IR) Imaging and fluorescent penetrant inspection (FPI) to reliably detect cracks. Blind Sonic IR and FPI inspections were performed on titanium and Inconel(R) specimens having statistically relevant flaw profiles. Inspector hit/miss data was collected and POD curves for each technique were generated and compared. In addition, the crack lengths for a number of titanium and Inconel(R) reference standards were measured before and after repeated Sonic IR inspections to determine if crack growth occurred.