Ultrasonic Testing Combined with Pattern Recognition for the Detection of Kissing Bonds

Kissing bonds are defects in the adhesive bonds with intimate contact of touching surface but considerably lowered shear strength. Their detection specifically in the aerospace area is so not satisfactory. Usually, kissing bonds are inconspicuous in ultrasonic C-scans. However, the determination of attributes in the time domain and the frequency domain of an ultrasound signal provides the opportunity to derive a pattern for bonded area. Deviations from the pattern found in inconspicuous bonding areas indicate kissing bonds. The survey described here deals with the manufacturing of adhesively joint samples that purposefully include kissing bonds, as well as potential solutions for detecting them through ultrasonic testing combined with pattern recognition. The properties of the epoxy-based adhesive were varied by changing the mixing ratios between resin and hardener. Samples with a mixing ratio far apart from the manufacturer’s recommendation with an inconspicuous appearance in a C-scan, but low shear strength values were taken for further evaluation. After a definition and learning phase, a 100 percent hit rate to separate good bondings from kissing bonds could be derived in a blind test. The discriminating feature found is due to the frequency shift between good and kissing bonds as well as the relative amplitude of the second peak.