U-CROSS

Currently, the presence of corrosion damages may be detected by means of non-destructive testing (NDT). However, the corrosion initiation and the mechanism behind the defect cannot be distinguished by common methods. As consequence, an early detection of corrosion is not done and corrective actions are only performed when become relevant (cracks, loss of thickness).

Therefore, aircraft industry needs sensors able to detect both corrosion initiation and its propagation. Combined with predictive models, it will allow forecasting how damage progresses when paint is degraded.

Therefore, the main objective of U-CROSS is to design, develop and validate the application of ultrasonic corrosion sensors (UCS), combining passive (Acoustic Emission) and active (Pulse Echo Ultrasonic Testing) types, for corrosion monitoring, enabling them for real time detection of early stages of localized corrosion as well as for monitoring the progress of damages with time.

The main role of CIDETEC within U-CROSS project is the calibration of NDT sensors for studying filiform and exfoliation corrosion of coated aluminium alloys, so a detailed methodology to reproduce each type of corrosion has to be developed. Once the sensors have been calibrated, a validation in a relevant environment has to be done.

Among management activities (WP7), CIDETEC leads WP1 based on the project specifications and WP2 focused on stablishing the setup in order to trigger the different corrosion mechanism.