In addition to its primary role in targeting NDE of large NASA spaceflight structures, ROVASIS can also be deployed for NDE of multi-walled composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPV), tiles, micro-meteoroid shielding, radiators and various aerospace structures. The fundamental principles of the NDE approach also support non-contact inspection on both thin metallic and various composite materials without regard to their exact makeup. Composite structures in particular are increasingly being incorporated in the construction of NASA spaceflight vehicles, notable examples including: the Antares Launch vehicle, Orion thermal protection support system (TPSS) for crew exploration and vehicle attachment structure (TAS), Launch Abort System (LAS) and the Lunar Lander (in composite struts). In addition to its inherent modular design the sensor architecture, geared towards field deployed instrumentation, the reconfigurabilty of ROVASIS facilitates multi-tier search and damage assessment for NDE and structural health monitoring of complex spaceflight structures employing composites, thin light-weight metals and hybrids.
The application of the proposed NDE system is anticipated to be of immediate benefit to all branches of military and commercial aerospace organizations concerned with aircraft maintenance and general fleet airworthiness. However the potential areas of application extend beyond this to commercial spaceflight, automotive, industrial and maritime fields where composite structures are similarly employed for a wide variety of applications due to their light weight and strength. The ROVASIS concept and related instruments is anticipated to appeal to a broad spectrum of applications and industries where existing commercial single beam LDV's are currently employed. In addition to performing routine vibration measurements much more efficiently (orders of magnitude faster than LDV) the imaging modality of the ROVASIS is anticipated to find new diagnostic capability beyond those of traditional LDV.
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