Physical Optics Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: To address the Navy"s need for a nondestructive inspection tool to measure strained s

Description

To address the Navy"s need for a nondestructive inspection tool to measure strained stresses in metallic components, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to develop a new nondestructive Phase-Shifting Interferometric Strained-Stress Analyzer (PISSA) system based on absolute optical phase measurements with an electronic speckle pattern interferometer (ESPI). This system can nondestructively and quantitatively measure the state and magnitude of a sustained stress present in a primary aircraft structure and on complex surfaces to assess susceptibility to environmentally assisted cracking in structural components. The PISSA system will improve flight safety and reduce inspection cycles for aircraft during fleet operations and directly addresses the Navy need for a nondestructive depot-level inspection tool. In Phase I, POC will demonstrate PISSA system feasibility by constructing and testing a laboratory prototype and providing diagnostics to determine the potential for crack initiation resulting from hydrogen embrittlement. In Phase II, POC will refine the system design and develop and demonstrate a full-scale PISSA system that can be effectively implemented in an environment equivalent to that of Fleet Readiness Centers (FRCs) without significantly disrupting the workflow or degrading the reliability of the data.