Traditional approaches to damage and repair assessment on composite include both instrumented and non-instrumented methods. The instrumented methods (such as bondtesters) are expensive and require skilled operators. Non-instrumented method (coin tapping) are cheap and simple but have drawbacks: they are dependent on an individual's hearing and interpretation, subject to workplace noise, and unable to provide quantitative data. Boeing has developed a low-cost, low skill instrumented tap hammer for measuring tap impulse characteristics, which are related to the local stiffness of the structure. The tap hammer supplements the hearing of the operator with a numeric readout. This paper describes the instrumented tap hammer and outlines its theoretical basis, design, and validation program.
| Number of Pages : | 12 |
| Published : | 06/01/1997 |
