Maintenance and Modifications
New Technique Could Detect Acoustically Invisible Cracks
System could enable intervention before cracks have even begun to form as well as predict the remaining life of an engineering structure.

The next generation of aircraft could be thinner and lighter thanks to the development of a nonlinear acoustic imaging technique that can detect damage previously invisible to acoustic imaging systems. According to Dr. Jack Potter, research assistant in the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Bristol’s Ultrasonics and Non-destructive Testing research group, it has long been understood that acoustic nonlinearity is sensitive to many physical properties including material microstructure and mechanical damage.