Improved Titanium Billet Inspection Sensitivity through Optimized Phased Array Design, Part II: Experimental Validation and Comparative Study with Multizone

The inspection of critical rotating components of aircraft engines has made important advances over the last decade. The development of Phased Array (PA) inspection capability for billet and forging materials used in the manufacturing of critical engine rotating components has been a priority for Honeywell Aerospace. The demonstration of improved PA inspection system sensitivity over what is currently used at the inspection houses is a critical step in the development of this technology and its introduction to the supply base as a production inspection. As described in Part I (in these proceedings), a new phased array transducer was designed and manufactured for optimal inspection of eight inch diameter Ti‐6Al‐4V billets. After confirming that the transducer was manufactured in accordance with the design specifications a validation study was conducted to assess the sensitivity improvement of the PAI over the current capability of Multi‐zone (MZ) inspection. The results of this study confirm the significant (≈ 6 dB in FBH♯ sensitivity) improvement of the PAI sensitivity over that of MZI.